Reduces costs of solar looking every nut and bolt

Editor's Note: Scientific American George Musser will be on their experiences in the installation of solar panels in the solar home (formerly 60-second solar). Read his introduction here and see all the posts here.

Solar energy means wonderful quantum physics and materials science, but their fate may depend on whether contractors can learn to bolt on the panels without losing too many screws. Own panes represent only half the cost of a solar; matrix the rest is the installation and the back-end computer. As manufacturers of panel drastically reduce its prices, the nuts and bolts loom larger ones. Fortunately, a quiet revolution is now underway in the installation. Brendan Neagle, Borrego Solar, an installer of significant U.S. operations chief officer said that accelerated installation 40 percent in the past two years.Zep Solar has invented a new roof mounting system, already supported by Canadian Solar, which speeds up things by another factor of Nat Kreamer dos.Y module manufacturer Acro energy, another large Installer, President says that they have streamlined the work of preparation and can lift a system on its roof within 30 days after your first call phone - quite an improvement over the eight months or more that it took.

In fact, historically, most of the cost of solar energy savings has come low-tech side. According to a study last year, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory arrays in 1998 cost approximately $11 per watt of generation capacity: $5 for the modules themselves, $6 for installation and equipment. 2008 Modules have fallen by $1 per watt, the installation for $2.Prices have fallen as installers have risen to the curve of aprendizaje.Y clearly there is space for them do it even better. The study reported in Germany arrays are $2 per watt cheaper that United States "anything that is inefficient needs being attacked," said Mike Miskovsky, general manager of Canada Solar.

Solar Spa CEO Jack West says that you began to rethink mounting systems for 12 years.Installed on the roof of an array of typical 5 kW rack consists of Rails metals 429, screws, washers and other parts that must be transported to the roof, which remained organized by what does not go through a drill and a set of drivers agregada.El nut and lack electrician, then you must run ground connection for all the metal parts of safety cables. Parties are often a mixture of copper, aluminium and steel, creating different crossings of metals that slowly erodes. In a few years, we see a wave of failures that create a risk of electrocution to who plays an array of grounding.

The system that he and his colleagues developed has 91 parts (see photo comparison above, although it shows a 2 kW, instead of using System 5 kW) and requires only the hole and one hand tool specialized. The system has minimalista.Un elegance small, adjustable mounting bracket presenters each panel until the roof, and a piece of Erector-conjunto - as side connect adjacent to provide mechanical support and earthing panels.Video demonstration of the company, a couple of workers had installed an array in 15 minutes, instead of one hour for the standard array (excluding the time settings on the ground) .ZepSolar Vice President Daniel Flanigan says system to reduce labor and parts for about 50 cents per watt. Also makes it easier to remove and replace a panel should the need arise.

I should point out that what I have not verified these claims first-hand while I I can attest to the difficulty of mounting a conventional mounting frame.Neagle agrees that the majority of mounting systems are Baroque and says that he likes the approach of Zep, while he is waiting to see how it shows itself in practice.

Neagle I spoke of the myriad other ways that Borrego has reduced installation costs.Preassemble drives four panels by arriving at the site, standardize practices such as what side of the matrix to run cables, and adhering to the adage of "measure twice, cut once", carefully plan outside installation before anyone gets near of a ladder.The company employs a team of people who do controlled experiments of Frederick Taylor-as new techniques using a stopwatch records and normal.Both pick up ideas from workers and train and capacitarles.Kreamer offers similar lessons and also said to reduce costs usually means the consolidation of smaller enterprises in a larger company to distributed operating expenses.

One of the challenges, says David Kaltsas, Vice President of SunWize, one of the largest solar equipment wholesale distributors as well as a residential Installer on the West Coast, is a shortage of experienced workers and talentosos.Y that is also a reason why solar panels are, for the most part, not exactly a DIY project yet. setting about to take experience and, in any case, the amount of knowledge that has been rising is tienen.Con time, efforts to simply the process so that practitioners can filter up to us warriors semana.Por end now, however, I believe that owners appreciate simply lower prices.

Photo courtesy of Zep Solar