Hey Matt [RE-wrenches]

[Pat Redgate]

Thass a good info on the thin film and history of defects.  It's good to hear 
you on the wrenches continuum again.  On our tour in Sac (thank you) I just 
could not stop myself from thinking about how fragile the glass seems without 
a framewall and how HUGE the foot(roof) print is!!  I know that there are 
hardly any residential roofs down here with a single orientation that would 
give me a SunnyBoyfull (2500).  And what is it about performance on thin film 
that impresses you so much?  Is it their ability to keep pumping on the dog 
days of summer?  Is the rate of degradation really that much of an 
improvement over crystalline?  Does the lower $$/watt really make up for the 
additional labor?  I mean, what IS it about thin film that has charmed you 
so??

And, something else about our visit... Is tracking more important for thin 
film performance or is that feature, which seemed so prevalent on the systems 
we visited, employed just because the utility has money to throw at these 
installations and it seems like a good idea?  I know that tracking will 
enhance the output of any solar system, mono, poly, thermal, etc., but does 
it really pay to do it this way?  We saw a number arrays there were not 
tracking and maintenance has got to be a royal pain in the ass.  Have you 
ever done a study to determine whether or not tracking is 'cost effective' or 
does it just extend "payback" when you add in the marginal setup cost, long 
term maintenance and parasitic energy loss?  Just wondering.  I know that a 
long time ago so many of us thermal dudes just gave up on rotational systems, 
even though Zomeworks had a pretty good setup in the eighties.

Oh.. and uno mas.  One summer we had a real heat wave... I think it was '89.  
During August we lost about thirty US Solar (thermal) 4x10 glazing.  It seems 
that the glass would expand and exert force on the box or framewall.  The fix 
was to reinstall the glass and without near so many screws, especially along 
the top.  

Bye

Patrick A. Redgate
AMECO
Long Beach, CA
(562) 595-9570
<A HREF="www.amecosolar.com">www.amecosolar.com</A>

PS:  graham is in Sacramento tomorrow (gets there tonight)

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