Industry testing [RE-wrenches]

[Bill Brooks]

Marco,

We can ask them, but one of the problems that very few in the industry are
aware of is that the U.S. Dept. of Energy has very little interest in this
type of testing. They have been slashing Sandia's system testing budget year
after year in a relentless attempt to suck more money into the testing of
thin-film modules. I like thin films and all, but the focus of DOE is much
on thin films and not enough on systems. Unfortunately there are some very
influential folks at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) that
have effectively moved money out of Sandia's budget into their own. Politics
abound everywhere and no place is it more evident than between the labs.

The reason that you hear so much about Sandia and nothing about NREL on
these subjects is because NREL has almost no systems capabilities whereas
that has been Sandia's strong suit for over 20 years.

A lot of folks in the industry like to hammer on Sandia for not doing more
and the enemies of system testing consistently use that information to slice
away at their budgets. Although Sandia is certainly not perfect, when their
budget gets slashed, that money goes into the ether and never gets seen
again. We should be asking what we can do to help there budgets and then
provide input to keep their systems research relevant to the issues of the
day.

Bill.


-----Original Message-----
From: Mangelsdorf, Marco [mailto:mmangelsdorf at hei.com]
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2002 3:28 PM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: SPAM: Industry testing [RE-wrenches]


Can we ask them to do this type of testing?  Can't they test
GC1000s, STXR inverters and SB inverters and give us definitive answers on
performance?

--Data, data, data...we want better data!  (How about Lt.Commander Data?)
Seriously now, I'm told that the next issue of HomePower will feature a
juicy article comparing the SB, ST and STXR.    Let's hear it for comparison
shopping.  Attention K-Mart shoppers...PV specials on aisle 4!

marco
proVision technologies
hilo, hawai'i

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