Trace UL and stupidity [RE-wrenches]

[Bill Brooks]

Drake, Larry, and Rob,

The anti-islanding scheme was conceived and developed by Sandia National
Labs with federal funding. Advanced Energy apparently filed for a patent on
this process or some variation of it. If the process is identical to the one
developed by Sandia, than it is based on previous science and therefore the
patent office made a mistake awarding the patent to Advanced Energy.

Any manufacturer is free to apply the Sandia anti-islanding method. If
Advanced Energy decides to use there patent to prevent companies from
applying that federally funded method, that would be a very unwise (and
unpopular) move and would not hold up in a court of law with appropriate
expert witness.

Bill.

-----Original Message-----
From: Drake Chamberlin - Electrical Energy
[mailto:solar at eagle-access.net]
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2001 9:32 AM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: Re: Trace UL and stupidity [RE-wrenches]


Hi Larry and Rob,

Thanks for your comments.

It is good to hear that Advanced Energy has a solution to the problem of
islanding.  If it becomes available now, it may prevent yet another
debilitating institutional barrier, hobbling the progress of small scale,
privately owned photovoltaic systems connected to the grid.  I hope it is
economical and easy to implement.

I agree with Larry that the utility disconnect is not used.  The
requirement to install it has only been another hoop to jump through, as
far as I can tell.  But, in the event that an inverter failed to shut down,
a utility disconnect could be useful.

Rob said:
"Line-person safety is, as Larry Elliot, pretty much a red herring as the
NESC (the utility's NEC) etc. require a practice of testing and grounding
before working."

We all are apparently in strong agreement on this point.

During the days when "the powers that be" sought an energy economy based on
the Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR), it was acknowledged that
tens of thousands of children would die of leukemia due to the
technology.  It was argued that this was acceptable since coal and other
technologies had similar degrees of health impact.

But, if solar electrical generation could "possibly" harm even one person,
drastic measures must be taken!  I am just curious to learn if there has
been one single problem to date.

If automobiles were held to the same safety standards as grid interactive
inverters, driving would have been outlawed years ago.  In any city, one
can hear sirens scream around the clock.

Maybe the islanding potential of Trace inverters really is a serious
hazard.  I'd just like to see some examples of the havoc that has been
created.  Maybe transformers are exploding like strings of lady fingers on
the Forth of July.  Maybe crispy linemen are dropping off power poles like
insects from bug zappers on a summer night in Louisiana.  ( - :

If so, lets see the statistics.

Peace,

Drake

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