[RE-wrenches] Reference PV System

[Rob Harlan]

I am working with the City of Edmonton, Alberta to develop a reference
system.  The intent is to provide accurate data for owners of systems within
the city limits to use to verify their system performance.  It is seen as a
great way to insure quality installations under their municipal grant
program, as well as a way to provide some real life performance data for
system sizing and installation recommendations. The City is considering
tying the dispersal of system grants to  verified performance.  (We are
hoping to eventually have a municipal performanced-based FIT,  but until
then...)  

At this point the plan is to permanently install modules at eight different
orientations to imitate common installations:

> True South 18.4 degrees ( Equivalent to a 4 in 12 pitch roof)
> True South 26.6 degrees (Equivalent to a 6 in 12 pitch roof)
> True South 45.0 degrees (Equivalent to a 12 in 12 pitch roof)
> True South 53.0 degrees (Latitude)
> True South 70.0 degree pitch (the estimated best angle for year round
> performance in Edmonton when snow is not removed)
> True south 90 degree pitch (Equivalent to a vertical wall installation)
> SE 18.4 degrees ( Equivalent to a 4 in 12 pitch roof)
> SW 18.4 degrees ( Equivalent to a 4 in 12 pitch roof)
> 
We will probably install two modules at each orientation to provide
redundancy to back up possible equipment malfunction. Each module will have
its own micro-inverter uploading data to a website.  The system will be
installed on a municipal building, probably a firehouse.

We are also considering installing a second, identical system which would
have snow removed once a day (at daybreak).  This would provide owners
considering snow removal with comparative  data.  The challenge here is how
to consistently remove accumulated snow.  We probably will not be able to
get municipal staff to carry this out so we are looking into automated
systems.

So gentlemen I would love to get your thoughts:

Anybody familiar with PV reference systems developed by other
municipalities?   Have they been successful?
Have you found the Enphase Envoy to be consistently accurate?

Does anyone have a reliable automatic snow removal scheme with a track
record?  We are putting it out to the University of Alberta mechanical
engineering department to see what they come up with but I know this has
been grappled with many times before.

Thanks much in advance for your input.
Rob
Rob Harlan
Executive Director
Solar Energy Society of Alberta
www.solaralberta.ca
office at solaralberta.ca
(780) 439-5608






-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20110102/c8ff6288/attachment-0002.html>