The single axis tracking system, created by Trabant Solar, features 24 photovoltaic solar panels bolted to the frame. It tilts the panels east to west, following the sun throughout the day, and generates 40 percent more power than the typical solar panel system. It includes three types of panels — crystalline silicon panels, polycrystalline silicon panels and thin film panels (CIGS or CdTe) — that Marsillac and his research team will test to find a cheaper, more efficient material to create the next generation of solar panels. Solar energy is becoming a more popular energy provider though, a lot of people are using things like this deep cycle solar battery. So it comes as no surprise to find out that people want a more efficient material to creation the next generation of solar panels.

“[The system’s] uniqueness comes from the simplicity of its design and its ability to have several ground-mounting solutions. This will allow an easy installation on any type of ground,” Marsillac explained. “Most of the time you buy land that’s not even, and leveling it is expensive. I’m hoping that, with this foundation design, you will avoid that.”

The applied research he’s doing is mostly funded by Trabant Solar, in addition to a $50,000 donation from Dominion Virginia Power, the state’s largest electric utility. “Our main goal is to help the company. We’re looking at any kinks in the software or hardware, and we’re also trying to work with Dominion Power to test the system for them to see which is the best panel to buy,” Marsillac said. “We also want to use the research to educate undergraduate and graduate students. We use this platform as an example of what can be done and to explain how renewable energy works.”

This research is in conjunction with the overall fundamental research that Marsillac does for the school — which received more than $2 million in federal grants from the Department of Energy and the Defense Department — to find the next generation of solar panels.

“With fundamental research, my hope is that we can find the material that would be more efficient and cheaper to fabricate than what is available today, which means five years from now we patent this process and it goes to market,” Marsillac said. “That’s the hope of any researcher.”

Across the country at Colorado Sate University, researchers at the Materials Engineering Laboratory — the same team that created high-efficiency solar panels in 2007 that AVA Solar Inc. later mass-produced — have a similar goal: to continue to research a more efficient, cost-effective way to create solar energy. Researcher Kurt Barth says the team is trying to do that by improving device voltage and device current.

“This is a spectacular time for solar energy research. There’s been a question of whether it could ever be cost-competitive with traditional energy, and either we’re there now or it’s very close,” Barth said. “It’s within grabbing distance, and I think the key to improving efficiency is university-style research.”
Barth believes that a major factor is figuring out the cost of traditional energy, which varies tremendously within the U.S. and even more so within the world. Utility rates are significantly different, and figuring out whether or not solar energy is more cost-effective varies between specific regions. Other factors such as the amount of sun certain areas get compared to others determine those costs as well.

“It’s difficult to give a date of when solar energy will be more cost-effective, but it’s definitely a broad trend that’s moving in the right direction. If we want to accelerate that trend, the kind of research we’re doing at the university is what’s needed to give the industry tools to bring those costs down,” Barth said.

As states continue to become more proficient in renewable energy options, this new technology means the possibility of new installations for architects and contractors across the country in the coming years.

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The project took just six weeks to complete. Construction workers installed 2,275 solar photovoltaic panels on 1.5 acres of roof space on Harvard’s Gordon Indoor Track and Tennis Building.

“Harvard hired a consultant to look at all of their buildings and properties, and the athletic building was chosen primarily based on its size. They had structural engineering done to determine that the building had the capacity for the panels as well,” Harrison said.

Although roofs often have many obstructions — including HVAC units and vent pumps —all the equipment for the athletic facility is housed underneath the roof, making it the perfect location for the solar panel installation, explained Harrison.

“This one [solar installation on the athletic facility] is by far five times as big as any other energy-efficient installation anywhere else on campus,” Harrison said.

The 600-kilowatt solar installation is also one of the largest solar roof installations in the city of Boston.
Harvard University acts as its own utility company and is subject to the same regulations as other utility companies in Massachusetts, including the requirement that 1 percent of its energy has to come from solar, said Harrison.

“With this project they [Harvard] are able to create renewable energy credits and then they can either sell those on the open market or they can have an interdepartmental exchange and sell them to Harvard utilities so Harvard can meet their Solar Renewable Energy Credit obligation,” Harrison said.

The electricity that’s produced will offset what is used at the track facility, saving the school money on electricity costs.

“In working with Harvard, they had very specific design standards from the beginning, probably the most robust and specific design standards that I have ever seen,” says Harrison. “But the result of that was a very smooth construction process.”

Harrison said that Harvard was completely satisfied with the installation and John Listor, assistant director of athletics, told Borrego Solar Systems that it was the smoothest construction project that they’ve been a part of in the past 12 years.

“Even though there were a lot of standards we had to meet, I think it led to an excellent project overall,” Harrison said.

Although this is the largest solar project at Harvard to date, the university continues to expand its efforts, with talks of new installations in the future.

“They are looking for this installation to create some revenue and receive feedback for a couple of months and then they’ll be ready to look at other buildings and do additional projects,” Harrison said. “They’re definitely interested in more.”

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The new wing of the school, called the Academic Village is designed to achieve LEED Gold certification and is a net zero energy building — generating enough power to fulfill 100 percent of its yearly energy requirements.

“We’ve been in our new Gen7 classrooms a few months, and we’ve been saving energy from the very first day,” said Mike Riera, Brentwood School’s Head of School. “Our students are excited to not just learn, but to see and experience what a difference they can make. Gen7 empowers them to do more.”

Since April the Gen7 solar system produced 6.94 MWH of energy, enough to power 229 homes for a day. It offset 4.8 tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of planting 123 trees. Over the course of the year, the Brentwood Gen7s are expected to reduce energy usage by 70 percent, while significantly lowering the school’s environmental footprint.
The environmental benefits are impressive but the students at Brentwood will also experience the benefits of learning within the Gen7 classroom.

“The Academic Village provides exactly the type of learning environment that inspires me to create new, engaging lessons for my students,” said Todd Ballaban, Middle Division Teacher.

The classrooms feature skylights along with new technology that allow students to interact virtually. The classrooms include big screen Smartboards that incorporate media into the students’ daily lessons as well as the “green button” that allows them to control the comfort level in the classroom.

“When pressed, the green button stimulates the active flow of natural air into the classroom, one of the incredible designs of the room,” said Ballaban. “Combined with the skylights, this natural airflow can keep students more awake and responsive in class. It’s closer to a fantasy world than any of us would have dreamed.”

The installation of the classrooms took American Modular Systems only 30 days to install. The company has also installed Gen7 classrooms in schools across the country and has received recognition for energy efficiency and sustainability achievements including the (California) Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award (GEELA) for Gen7 Schools.

Award recipients for the GEELA are chosen in 12 different categories based on their strength in eight specific areas including results, transferability, environmental impact, resource conservation, economic progress, innovation and uniqueness, pollution prevention, and environmental justice. Gen7 was one of only 16 winners at the event.

“American Modular Systems is a true leader,” said Secretary for Environmental Protection Matt Rodriquez. “They prove that you can support and promote environmental values without sacrificing your business objectives. They understand that going green can be a successful economic strategy that can also lead to sustainable growth and development.”

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“This project represents the student led initiative for sustainability on campus,” said Morgan Chan, Sustainability Commissioner of Associated Students. “Sustainability is important to the students, the size of this project and the great savings we will have because the new solar array really stands out to people within the Associated Students and the larger University community as well.”

The students are heavily involved in seeing green improvements throughout the campus. The funding to build the new solar installation at ARC came from a student made referendum that was passed by the SDSU student body in spring 2008 in order to provide the campus with sustainable upgrades as well as additional programming.

The recent solar project was installed by San Diego-based Sullivan Solar Power and will save 11.3 million pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere over the next 20 years, according to Sullivan Solar Power.

“This is the sixth solar project we have done for Associated Students and it is great to see that there is such a strong commitment coming from SDSU’s student leadership,” said Daniel Sullivan, founder and president of Sullivan Solar Power. “During an era of budget cuts and furlough days in higher education, it is reassuring that the Aztecs are setting a national example and doing their part to save students money.”

The net project cost after rebates is $500,000 and the Associated Students will save nearly $65,000 per year or about $1.6 million over the 25 year lifetime of the project, according to Sullivan Solar Power.

The post SDSU Installs Its Second Largest Solar Array appeared first on School Construction News.

Kicked off with the development of the first riveted steel furnace in 1895, the Dallas-based HVAC manufacturer and distributor continues its innovation goals with the recent announcement of their new solar-powered, renewable energy rooftop unit.

The SunSource commercial energy system rooftop unit requires no changes to a building’s electrical system and the panels do not have to be laid out on any particular grid, according to company officials.

“In typical systems that have been available, if one panel fails the entire grid fails — that’s not true with this new technology,” said Donna Peoples, the company’s regional K-12 account manager. “The greatest thing about it is that it’s so simple to install, many of the school districts can install their own in three to three-and-a-half hours.”

The unit offers cost-savings on utilities, as well as a “tremendous amount of money on their demand charges, which many times aren’t taken in to consideration,” Peoples said.

Schools can also use the solar rooftop system as a teaching tool in environmental science using a monitor that can be mounted in the classroom or at the district office.

“They can see exactly how many trees have been saved, how many cars have been eliminated from the road depending on their live data,” she said.

While all schools are on tight budgets and want to be friendly to the environment, Peoples said a cost-efficient way to go solar is to purchase rooftop units from the manufacturer solar-ready to meet all UL or ETL approval.

“It’s not something that can be retrofitted, so my suggestion for school districts that have an interest in solar is that when they replace the rooftop unit, order it solar-ready,” she said. “Because the cost is so nominal, if it’s standard voltage of 208/230 volts, it’s less than a $200 add to have it solar ready, and if five years down the road they want to add a solar panel or two or three, they can add it. It’s not something they have to do all at one time.”

Many utilities are also currently providing rebates on solar panel systems.

“One of my co-harts in Texas did a calculation with the cost of the panel and with what the rebate is through the utility — and then some have applied for grants which would further reduce the cost —but with what’s available today, a school district is only looking at actual 35 percent of the cost of the solar system in the state of Texas,” she said.

When looking at cost, Peoples also recommended taking longevity into account.

“Some manufacturers are manufacturing what I call throw-away units that have to be replaced in eight to 10 years, that’s the life expectancy,” she said. “The lowest expected life with Lennox is 17 years.”

Americo Garza, Energy Manager of Weslaco Independent School District in Weslaco, Texas said the district has had three Lennox HVAC rooftop units installed throughout the campus and has had no complaints.

“In our district, Weslaco, we take pride in trying to get top quality products and indoor air is certainly a priority,” he said. “So Lennox is performing, the units are doing really well.”

The district has 12 elementary schools, four middle schools and two high schools.

While the district has not been able to monitor the direct cost-savings from the units due to the way the metering is set up, administrators saw an immediate difference in air quality when installing the new units.

“When we were replacing the units that had already given out on us, we installed the new units and we could feel the air was much fresher, much dryer and more crisp, so it certainly helps,” Garza said.

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