I get to talk about solar! Peter here, and I finally get to talk about something that is quite firmly in my wheelhouse and passion area.
An incredibly exciting design element of our build is that we are expanding our existing solar array. Between our triplex and our garage, we already had a 9.3 kWdc solar array on our property. These were from 31 300Wdc SolarWorld mono modules that were installed in 2017. There were some positives and negatives here. Our installer unfortunately oversized our array so we didn’t qualify for a substantial state incentive, but we did maximize our on site potential. Another negative is that SolarWorld was actually one of two companies that led a push to introduce solar tariffs against China (and eventually most of the rest of the world), which the Trump administration very disappointingly implemented as a result. Even with the tariffs, SolarWorld (side note: a German company that just had operations in the US) ended up going bankrupt, so getting any replacement parts in the future will be a pain. Anyway, swinging back to the positives. Our new structure is going to have a perfectly southern oriented, wide open roof. We uninstalled and saved the 10 modules that had been installed on our garage. In addition to those, we will be adding 22 new Heliene 380Wdc bifacial modules and a 315 Heliene mono module. Why am I so excited about this? First off, Heliene is a Canadian company but has a manufacturing operation in Mountain Iron, MN. This is the only active solar module manufacturer in Minnesota. Very cool that this is happening in our state and in an area of the state that definitely needs the industry support. Additionally, these new modules are bifacial, meaning that the backsheet of the module is clear instead of metallic. This allows some light to pass through, reflect, and then produce some energy on the backside of the module. It doesn’t double production, but it can add a 15-20% boost. So cool! One last design note on the solar array. We are going to test out if the bifacial modules can be used as a quasi-stained glass window. We didn’t want to alter the existing thermal envelope of the building, so we designed a peak-a-boo opening above the balcony. This will have a bifacial module above it, which will allow some light through. The bifacial module won’t have the same efficiency benefit since the reflection won’t happen, but it will hopefully add a cool element to our balcony! At a minimum, it will allow us to show off the technology to groups interested in visiting our site in person. If you have more solar questions, please comment below and we will do our best to answer them! Sometimes to my wife’s chagrin, I could talk about solar all day. If you ever want to come visit our site in person, definitely let us know that, too. A major goal of this project is to demonstrate the various technology elements and try to normalize them in the marketplace. Everything is being designed with that in mind to be able to share the knowledge. Come say hi!
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AuthorKatie Jones and Peter Schmitt chronicle their building adventure. Archives
January 2024
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