[RE-wrenches] Best Choice for PV in hot climates

Doug Pratt dmpratt at sbcglobal.net
Sun Feb 21 16:17:42 PST 2010


Peter, you're certainly barking up the right tree with thin-film or
amorphous solar products in a hot climate, although I have no direct
experience with the First Solar products. Amorphous silicon PV in general
suffers about half the temperature fade of crystalline PV products. This
often makes them a better choice in hot climates. On the flip side of that
coin, thin-film products are often a poor choice in cold climates because
they enjoy about half the cold temp boost of crystalline.

Because thin-film products generally deliver about half as many watts per
square foot, they require more surface area...probably not a worry in the
desert. But mounting hardware cost IS a big problem. You need really cheap,
fast mounting hardware to compete with crystalline products, especially now
that PV prices are so low. I urge you to look very carefully at what
mounting is going to cost. The nitch for thin film has been squeezed to near
invisibility by current pricing for crystalline PV. 

Sharp just recently rolled out a new thin-film module line intended for
large-scale projects. We're having a tough time finding any mounting/wiring
solution that offers any advantage over standard poly-crystalline PV.

Cheers,
Doug Pratt
DC Power Systems
 

-----Original Message-----
From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Peter
Parrish
Sent: Saturday, February 20, 2010 4:49 PM
To: 'RE-wrenches'
Subject: [RE-wrenches] Best Choice for PV in hot climates

Since most of our business is in the LA basin, we don't often have to
consider optimizing a PV system design in high temperature regions. We are
looking at a fairly big (100-200 kW) commercial ground mount in the El
Centro / Calexico area (ZIP 92231). The avg high in July is 107 deg F with
record highs in the 122 deg F range. Record low is 18 deg F.

I have some anecdotal information that thin film modules (e.g. First Solar)
provide the greatest bang for the buck kWh/yr/P, where P=installed cost per
kW. Are their any independent studies out there to support this?

- Peter

                                                     
Peter T. Parrish, Ph.D., President
California Solar Engineering, Inc.
820 Cynthia Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90065
CA Lic. 854779, NABCEP Cert. 031806-26
peter.parrish at calsolareng.com  
Ph 323-258-8883, Mobile 323-839-6108, Fax 323-258-8885



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