[RE-wrenches] Commercial design predicament

[Dave Click]

Daryl,
I don't think there's a practical way to make this work either. If you were
adding a 500kW load to that site, the utility would gladly bring out a
three-phase transmission line with an appropriate transformer.
Unfortunately, for a solar farm, the utility probably wouldn't be willing
to do that for free and would require three-phase service-- even though
it's technically possible with a big batch of 10kW 1P inverters.
Unfortunately, running the line that mile out to you could be a few hundred
thousand dollars. It's worth checking with the utility, but I'd guess you'd
have to pay for the extra mile of 3P distribution line.

Dave


On Fri, Dec 14, 2012 at 10:12 AM, <penobscotsolar at midmaine.com> wrote:

> Hello fellow wrenches,
>    I am hoping someone here has come across this before and might have a
> suggestion or two for us. I have a client who has a large piece of land
> and the financing for a 500 kw solar "farm" in Maine. The predicament I
> am in is that the closest three phase primary is more than a mile away.
> The existing single phase, 7200 volt lines to the three phase portion
> of the grid could easily handle the -80 amps extra load coming onto it
> from the central inverters, it is just that I cannot find, anywhere, a
> practical way to make this work, that is, converting the three phase
> output of the central inverter(s)(480v) to the requirement for the grid
> (7200 v single phase). Any ideas?? Suggestions?
>
> Thank you,
> Daryl DeJoy
> NABCEP Certified PV installer
> Penobscot Solar Design
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> List sponsored by Home Power magazine
>
> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>
> Options & settings:
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> List-Archive:
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> List rules & etiquette:
> www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>
> Check out participant bios:
> www.members.re-wrenches.org
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20121215/0fde13b9/attachment-0003.html>