Engineering Photovoltaic Systems 2: 2010

Engineering Photovoltaic Systems II Application Flexibility of Solar Electricity Original Presentation by J. M. Pearce, 2006 Revised by D. McLaughlin and J.M. Pearce, 2010 Email: [email protected]

Outline Part II • Distributed Energy Source – – – – –

Roof Retrofits BIPV Tiles, Shingles Facades Parking and Sound Barriers

• Centralized PV • PV Systems for Transportation – Cars, Boats, and Bikes

Photovoltaic Cells as Distributed Energy Source • Located near the consumer in order to eliminate transmission losses (which can be higher than 50% on some antiquated grids). • Panels can be placed on roofs, built into roofs, building facades, carports, highway sound barriers, etc. • Any surface which is exposed to sunlight is fair game.

Roof Retrofits

• This house on right is modular construction and includes 6 kW of PV modules. • Below retrofits to schools

Building Integrated Photovoltaics or BIPV The design and integration of PV technology into the building envelope, usually replacing conventional building materials: Solar modules come in a variety of shapes, colors, sizes and can be integrated into any type of architecture. • Advantages – Aesthetics – Reduce the cost of the system (e.g. roof, awning, etc.)

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vertical facades, replacing view glass, spandrel glass, or other facade material; into semitransparent skylight systems; into roofing systems, replacing traditional roofing materials; into shading "eyebrows" over windows; or other building envelope systems.

Residential Rooftops ●

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Specifically designed for PV. This energy efficient home in Oxford generates more electricity than it uses. ●

Surplus electricity is sold to the local utility company and to power an electric car

Roofing Tiles and Shingles • The PV shingle shown here won Popular Science Magazine's grand award for What's new in Environmental Technology. • PV shingles can replace common roofing shingles. • PV shingles look much like ordinary roofing shingles, but they generate electricity. • They were laid out and nailed to the roof using the same methods as are used to lay conventional shingles. • Like their non-PV counterparts, these shingles overlap providing for water shedding capability.

Relaxing on Solar Shingles • Bill Ball, president of the Stellar Sun Shop in Little Rock, Arkansas, is clearly comfortable with PV shingles on the rooftop of his shop.

The flexible shingles, rated at 17 watts each, are manufactured by United Solar Systems Corp.

Peel and Stick Solar Cells • Thin film amorphous silicon solar cells which can be deposited on plastic or steel (right) are extremely versatile • The panels on the right can be stuck directly to standard standing seam metal roofs • Simple installation method reduces overall cost of system

Standing-Seam PV • Buildings with standing-seam metal roofs can use solar module material referred to as "thin films" that can be rolled out inside the standing seams. Roof-integrated PV panels were installed on the south-facing roof of the BigHorn Home Improvement Center in Silverthorne, Colorado.

Semi-Transparent Solar PV These panels have amorphous silicon deposited on glass and are semitransparent – they can be used both as tinted glass but also as a project screen backdrop.

Putting it all Together

The Boston Edison

“Impact 2000” home incorporated ● a 4-kWp utilityconnected photovoltaic array in the original construction ●

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all electric appliances, solar electric water heating, and both passive and active space heating.

Commercial Rooftops Large rooftops are ideal locations for PV

PowerGuard sloped tiles, 150 Wp per tile, shown on customer's roof

PV at Lowe's • Lowe’s executives determined that clean, reliable distributed solar generation offers many benefits both to its retail operations and to the surrounding community. • Lowe’s is extremely committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while promoting and selling energy efficient home improvement products. • Lowe’s sought a costeffective solution to reduce the operating costs associated with providing reliable electricity supply at its West Hills store.

Wal-Mart as a solar leader?

• Wal-Mart’s Apple Valley Distribution Center Location: CA Operator: Wal-Mart Configuration: 1 MW Operation: 2010 • These 5,300 panels covering nearly 7 acres will cover 20% of the center’s electricity requirements 

Solar Powered Hotels • Hawaii’s Mauna Lani Bay Hotel • This sprawling hotel had acres of roof space, making it the perfect host for a photovoltaic system. • They installed a PowerGuard (R) system of insulating PV roofing tiles that covers 10,000 ft2 and generates 75kWs. • The hotel will be spared hundreds and thousands of dollars in utility bills.

4 Times Square - BIPV • The building’s most advanced feature is the photovoltaic skin, a system that uses thinfilm PV panels to replace traditional glass cladding material. • The PV curtain wall extends from the 35th to the 48th floor on the south and east walls of the building, making it a highly visible part of the midtown New York skyline.

Solar Skylights and Cladding

PV Facades • Scheidegger Building with photovoltaic facade near Bern in Switzerland. Courtesy of Atlantis Solar Systeme AG • Austria • Swtizerland

Building Facades

Building Facades • 73 kW system and generates ~ 55 000 kW-hrs of electricity per year in Sunderland, UK. • This 3500 m2 solar office building at the Doxford International Business Park near Sunderland in the UK incorporates 646 m2 of photovoltaic modules.

Facades • Solar cells can be made in different colors • Glass façades on office buildings, winter gardens or sunroofs on automobiles will become energy suppliers with the transparent solar cell. • The use of the transparent, dark blue solar cells allows a beautiful play of light and shadow. • The standard product lets a tenth of the light pass through and has a 10 % efficiency rate.

Solar Cube The 20kW cube stands 135 feet tall on top of the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana

Solar Olympics • The 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta featured a very unique PV system. • The Natatorium (swimming and diving facility) that houses a large PV array for powering the facility also features a canopy system at the entrance to the building. • The modules were made especially for the swimming facility with a clear backing to allow light to pass through.

Solar PV as Shading

Centralized PV Prescott Airport Location: AZ Operator: Arizona Public Service Configuration: 1,450 kWp SGS Solar Location: AZ Operator: Tucson Electric Power Co Configuration: 3,200 kWp

Pros and Cons of Centralized PV • Advantages – Economy of scale – Single location for maintenance – You can put a fence around it

• Disadvantages – All eggs in one basket – natural/terrorist disaster – Transmission losses – Land cost

Rem: Distributed vs Centralized Hysperia PV Power Station.

Solar Concentrators • These 20-kW Solar Systems dishes dwarf visitors in Alice Springs, Australia. • The concentrators use an array of mirrors to focus sunlight onto high-efficiency solar cells. • Four supports hold the cells in front of the mirrors • The supports also supply cooling water and electrical connections

PV Thermal (PV/T) Systems • Combines PV cells with a solar thermal collector – Produces electricity and heat

• Solar thermal collector can heat liquid (typically water) or air • Increases overall efficiency of energy conversion (over 50%) versus only PV • Saves space compared to separate PV and solar thermal systems

BIPV/T Systems • SolarWall on the John Molson School of Business building at Concordia University • 24.5 kWp of PV panels and 75 kWp thermal heating • 288 m2 worth of panels • Constructed December 18th , 2008

Centralized Wind-Solar Hybrid System • In hybrid energy systems more than a single source of energy supplies the electricity. • Wind and

Solar compliment one another •

Hybrid PV-Diesel Systems • Unique to the project is the introductio n of a new generation of hybrid power processing equipment • This new

115 kW PV/hybrid energy system

PV for Hydrogen Production • Electricity from PV panels can be used to form hydrogen gas by splitting water molecules (electrolysis) • Hydrogen can be used in fuel cells to produce electricity – Offers storage mechanism of PV energy and electricity source at night

• The produced hydrogen can also be used as a vehicle fuel with specially designed engines

Engineering Photovoltaic Systems

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Art and PV

• Located among the rolling hills of Northern California, these solar electric sunflowers elegantly combine art and technology. • Each sunflower produces 1 kW of solar electricity and consists of four 240 Wp polycrystalline PV modules custom made with yellow back-skins and yellow frames. • The custom PV modules are attached to a two-axis-tracking mechanism and mounted on custom-painted green poles producing a field of 36 kW solar electric sunflowers. • The sunflowers wake up each day and follow the sun's path from sunrise to sunset, increasing solar harvest over a fixed array by 25%. • This system produces enough energy for approximately eight to ten homes and was an ideal engineering solution for the steep hillside site.

PV Systems for Transportation PV will be most applicable to transportation if it can be stored

–Batteries –Electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen

Solar Car Racing • Car #195, Cal State University/Long Beach, at the start line of Sunrayce 1995

Sunrayce is a biennial solar-powered car race for colleges and universities in North America. Students design, build and then race their car 1,250 km from Indianapolis, IN, to Colo. Springs, CO.

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Can Cars be Solar Powered? From July 15th to

the 25th, 2001, 2300 miles of solar “raycing” challenged teams from around the world. • High tech and high efficiency solar cars crossed the Great Plains, climbed the Rocky Mountains, and dashed over the Great American Desert to the finish line in Southern California

More Solar Cars • This solar powered race car was built in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by students at Drexel University during the 1989-1990 school year. • Car #43, University of Missouri/ Columbia, on the road in Sunrayce 1995

PV Covered Parking Electric or hybrid electric vehicles can recharge their batteries at PV power stations such as this one at the University of S. Florida.

Covered parking in California provides shading and makes electricity

PV Integrated into Highway Sound Barriers • Solar Panels on Sound Barriers • This solar power, in proposed system, could give EVs essentially unlimited range on freeways that supply intransit power. • Highway sound barrier above planted slope, with integrated PV panels,  in Austria.  • An upcoming project in Holland will use PVs,  installed on railway rightof-way,  to power an entire electric rail system.

Solar Powered Bikes and Gold Carts! Team #2, from Green

• These golf carts are powered by photovoltaic modules from Shell Solar

Mountain High School in Lakewood, CO won the women's division of the solar bike race

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Solar Electric for Boats 300-watt system powers on-board communications and lighting, an application that has been in use for 15 years

Solar Boats • On board, the solar modules create a fascinating play of light, shadow, and transparency. • The largest solar boat in the world began operating on the Alster River in Hamburg on May 23, 2000. • This boat can hold up to 120 passengers for excursions and charter tours

The boat can hold up to 120 passengers for excursions and charter tours. The "Alster Sun" reaches a speed of 5 kmph just from solar power.

If it has to go faster, the rest of the energy comes from batteries.

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Solar Powered Fun!

• Catamaran “Sol 10”: direct current powering from 550 to 1600 watts. • No drivers license needed, unsinkable, and easy to use.

Solar Photovoltaics is the Future

Acknowledgements • This is the third in a series of presentations created for the solar energy community to assist in the dissemination of information about solar photovoltaics. • This work was supported from a grant from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. • The author would like to acknowledge assistance in collecting information for this presentation from Heather Zielonka • The full series can be found here: http://www.appropedia.org/Solar_Photovoltaic_Open_Lectures