We just finished installing a 3450 watt solar PV system in the Rattlesnake where we employed 16 Enphase micro inverters. Micro inverters offer several advantages over more conventional string inverters.

Racking system in, Panel get ready!

Each solar module power production is optimized individually so little module mismatching occurs.  As well, if one module is shaded from a nearby tree, this one module will have reduced output, not the entire series string of modules as with the larger string inverters.  This advantage alone makes a huge difference but the pluses don’t end here.

Josh setting the first panel. Check out the lines on those racks and micro-inverters.

The Enphase engineers designed one of the coolest monitoring programs found in the PV world.  Each individual module reports its power output over the existing AC output wiring to your in home computer or with internet service, this data is directed to the company’s website where current and cumulative data is displayed and stored.

A good graphic says a thousand words so if you are interested check out this link to the Enphase monitoring examples.  http://enlighten.enphaseenergy.com/public/systems/BxqT67#.

Micro Inverters, Monitoring and Mountains.

PS – don’t those snowy spring peaks just look great in the distance?  It sure is nice to be working Solar in Montana.

Dan Brandborg
SBS Solar guru
dbrandbog@sbslink.com

After five weeks of designing, ordering and coordinating over sea shipments, we are about to depart for the final installation phase of our Maui PV system.  As things move a bit slower in this part of the world we have needed every day to bring the pieces and people together to be at this point.

Several hundred feet of buried conduit are being set this week in advance of the final week push of installation.  A new concrete pad has been poured for the 500 gallon propane tank which will fuel the backup generator.  Project objectives have grown which is typical yet always different.  As we found a place for this tank it was decided to pull the old above ground diesel tanks which died long ago.  It is amazing to see what this rainforest climate can do to steel.  The top portion of the tanks have literally rotted away.  Don’t stand in one place to long or a vine will start growing up your leg.

We will be installing 27 Sharp 235 watt modules, three of which will operate the swimming pool circulation and filtering pump directly.  An Outback power panel including 4 outback inverter/ chargers will be placed in the equipment room along with 24 -2 volt cells to give us a large battery storage system.

Check out the video clips of our initial inspection.

SBS_Maui_prelim_recs

Not a bad place to have to work as long as the vines don’t get ya!

Dan Brandborg
CFI Photovoltaic Energy Specialist
NABCEP Certified
dbrandborg@sbslink.com

After a little design and deliberation, we have some new marketing pieces… tell us your take:

This is our one page 8.5 x 11 flyer:

SBS_qualifications (click to open)

This is our tri-fold, double sided brochure:

SBS_trifold (click to open)

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

Well – I finally got my first lesson with the Solar Pathfinder.  On a recent visit to the top of an undisclosed Missoula-area mountain, I was guided through the solar site assessment process using the Solar Pathfinder.  It was really quite user friendly, once I got in there.

Visual Solar Site Assessment

First, we did a visual assessment of the landscape for the potential array.  This zone is south facing with an open area for a land-mounted array and limited tree interference form the East and West. (see photo)

Second, we set up the Solar Pathfinder toward the middle of the array.  I had to level the top surface and line up the compass with North.  It was much easier than I expected.  (Tidbit:  I’d have to be off by as much as 20-degrees on the compass to really start to affect the numbers on our read out!)

Solar Pathfinder - notice the tree shadows on the left and right sides of the dome.

Third, we put the dome over the top of the “map” in order to see what solar interference there would be, if any. (see photo).  In the old days outlines of the trees were drawn by hand on paper solar maps.  Today we are able to take this photo and enter into a computer program to get the read out for the assessment.

As this photo shows, there is minimal interference by a couple trees in the far-East and -West of the sun’s path, and only at certain times of year.  We do have permission to remove a couple trees.  This, coupled with the use of some micro-inverters (opposed to one inverter for the entire system) will take care of the loss of energy production due to shading.

While the Solar Pathfinder wasn’t too hard to set-up, nor to photograph and read in the field, once our solar gurus started talking maximum loads, array design, racking, installation, etc… I was quickly out of my league and duly impressed with the expertise of our staff.

If you’re interested in a solar site assessment or checking out a cool solar ROI tool, check out this new solar estimator on our website.

Missoula to Maui – two trips – 6-weeks – off the grid – this is awesome!

We completed our in depth site analysis of the Maui, Hawaii facility earlier in April.  We shot three video clips of the existing 20 year old PV system which we will soon have on our site. The clips detail the review of this system which is at the end of its useful life, and our suggestions of what to replace it with.

In brief we will be installing a 5.6 kW solar array and expanding the existing mount structure.  The two Trace inverters will be replaced with four Outback inverters and a Outback power panel.  A stationary generator will be installed to maximize the battery charging ability of the above mentioned inverter/chargers and minimize the generator run time.

As the pool filtration pump was found to be consuming one third of the entire facilities electrical power, this AC pump will be replaced with a DC pump powered from its own three module solar array.  This will maximize overall efficiency and greatly reduce the man hours spent in cleaning the pool.

We are scheduled to install this system in the first half of June so we will keep posting as we go.

Aloha!

Dan “the Solar Man” Brandborg

Photovoltaic Energy Specialist

NABCEP Certified