PV Solar System - First year results

This is a press release of IDA International Inc.

Derby, CT (March 29, 2010) - IDA International Inc. today announced the results from 1 year of operating a photo-voltaic system at its facility in Derby, CT.

You can read the unveiling "operational" announcement of the system here. Data points:

• First year operations period 2009-Mar-23 thru 2010-Mar-23.
• System size is 525 photo-voltaic panels with a 100kw DC to AC inverter.
• Generated 111,266kwh of electricity, thus providing in excess of all consumption needs for operations on-site.
• Single day record of 695kwh was set on 2009-May-19.
• Nine months had more electricity production than consumed by operations, the exceptions were Nov, Dec, Jan.
• Based on data from the EPA for our electricity provider (United Illuminating), this clean generation avoided 103,032 lbs of carbon dioxide, 263 lbs of sulfer dioxide and 96lbs of nitrogen oxide from polluting the air.
• The "credits" from our renewable energy generation (as opposed to generation from coal or gas) were sold to the Ct. Clean Energy Fund.

See how clean the electricity you consume is via this EPA webpage.

Contact: thomas.harbinson@ida-intl.com

Sunny St Patrick's Day

Today provided an opportunity to illustrate just what a sunny day is like in it's impact on the earth.

Our Photo-Voltaic Solar Array records all it's statistics on a server every 5 minutes. This data can then be analyzed, or for today's purposes graphed. If any educator / researcher would like the raw log data, please contact me via email.

Data:
PV System size: 525 panels.
Inverter capacity: 100kw DC to AC.
Date: 2010/Mar/17 (St Patrick's Day)
Weather: Clear, no clouds, high temperature in the 60's.
Begin civil twilight 6:33 a.m
Sunrise 7:01 a.m.
Sun transit 1:01 p.m.
Sunset 7:01 p.m.
End civil twilight 7:29 p.m.
Electricity Creation begin 7:04 a.m.
Peak Generation (88.8kw) 1:39 p.m.
Electricity Creation stop 7:09 p.m.
Total Electricity for day 597kwh

Sunny Statistics

The PV Solar System is currently down for repairs.

During the heavy snowstorm of late February, a disruption to our array occurred. The direct current generation was "off" and caused the inverter to trip a fuse (as it would normally do to protect it's electronics). The system as a whole has worked well with little down time since it's installation nearly a year ago. There were 8 days in 2009 where the system as whole was non-functional. Circuit boards in the inverter, or power outages from the grid caused such lack of output. Note that I don't say mis-function, as when their is a power outage, our PV Solar System will not push energy into the grid.

In 2009 electric year (2008Dec18 thru 2009Dec16):

• Our system was in place for 269 days (8 of which there was no production).
• The average system output over those days was 343kwh/day.
• The average consumption of our operations in that same period was 301kwh/day.
• Highest daily electricity generation was May19 with 695kwh.

November and December were the only months that the PV Solar System didn't generate more than our entire operations electricity consumption. Overall since operational, there has been more electricity generated from the sun than is needed to power all our lights, computers, and equipment in the entire office and manufacturing plant. Since 114% of consumption was generated from a "renewable energy" source, state regulations require that the excess kwh be carried forward as a "credit" on the utility account, to be drawn down upon in a future billing period.

Photovoltaic Energy in winter

The PV Solar array has some data from winter months operations we would like to share.

There are less daylight hours during the winter time, the angle of the sun is lower in the sky and at times there is snow covering the array. Still, we have been successful in generating significant amounts of our total electricity consumption.

In November we generated 98% of our consumption, December was 65% (due to an equipment problem), January thus far is 75%.

During the winter months, we draw down on the credit on our account due to excess generation from the summer months. In April, if there remains a credit of kilowatt hours, it is swept clean and paid to us at a "wholesale" rate based on the New England regional electrical pool's cost for electricity generation (ISO New England).

As of today, our credit, or "banked" kwh is over 10,000 which represents a month and a half of consumption. Our forecast is to easily complete a year of solar generation come mid March 2010, where we operated our entire manufacturing and office facility off the sun.

Facility Improvements

Our factory and office are located within a structure built in the mid 1800's as a munitions factory. Bringing the facility up to a modern aesthetics and efficient layout is a challenge.

Every year we try and improve our facility. In 2007, that was a new standing seam roof over the factory. In 2008, that was a photo-voltaic solar array on the building where it faces the sun. In spring of 2009, we upgraded our air-conditioner and air handler equipment. Today we upgrade our shed-storage area with a new floor.

The area did have a rough concrete area, but it was uneven over the various building floors and foundation remnant that previously stood in that place.

We kept the concrete locally supplied by Haynes Materials in Seymour, and the contractor for the floors was Paul Kochiss from Oxford. Steel reinforcement came from Fox Steel Products in Orange. Preparation work of the area was performed Eddie Bleau in Seymour. I'd be happy to provide a reference for any of the above.

How Photovoltaic Energy works.

The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund is the provider of contributions on behalf of the State of CT. The CCEF has put together a very nice website (flash based) to demonstrate how PV Solar, and other clean energy methods function.

I highly recomend it as an educational tool for those who want to learn more.

As our system enters the shoulder season of fall into winter, the daylight hours diminish, and the angle of the sun lowers in the sky. Both reduce the total kilo-watt hours produced by our system, but we are still generating more on a monthly billing basis, than what has been consumed. Since March 2009, when the system went live, we have generated >120% of our consumption from the sun.

http://www.ctcleanenergy.com/innoflash/#/solar/how_voltaic

"Sunniest" days in June?

One might assume that the most sun would shine down on our photo-voltaic array in the longer daylight periods of June, but there are other factors at work in the system to creating electricity.

Certainly the longest day of the year is the summer solstice of Jun21. However, due to the orientation and location of the array, we don't immediately benefit from the sunrise start of the day, but the sunset lingers right till the end.

Next, is the typical weatherman forecast for the summer of "hazy sunshine". There is a difference between a crystal clear day in the winter when the sky is azure blue, and the summer sunshine day when the sky is a bit brown and yellow from smog.

Finally, is the nature of the polysilicon panels. They lose efficiency when warm (about 10% between a winter and summer day).

All that said, our Derby, CT location has had abnormally cool days this summer thus far, and also abnormally high amounts of rain this summer. The latter washes debris off the panels such as accumulated pollen, but the associated clouds cause lack of sunshine.

During July, we had the system down 6 days for service, yet still have been generating more electricity from the sun than what we consume for our entire office and shop operations.

The Naugatuck River Valley is where we are located, and there are several large PV arrays here(Thule in Seymour, Basement Systems in Seymour, Honey Cell in Shelton, and BJ's in Derby). To my knowledge, we are the first manufacturer in CT that entirely operates off the sun. Since Mar23, 126% of our electricity has come from the sun.

The local paper did a story (includes photo and video) on the local trend which you can read here.