Review of Heliene's 72 Cell Poly-crystalline 300 W Solar Panels

Review of Heliene's 72 Cell 300 W  Poly-crystalline Solar Panels

The Kortright Ontario solar panel demonstration project was set up to prove that Ontario Manufacturer's could produce excellent solar panels.  It was NOT intended to promote one manufacturer over another. Some wise marketing people saw this as an opportunity to show case their products by any means. Most or all equipment performed well with in normal operating tolerances.  However, an alert marketing manager could select his best panel, burn it in and then send it in for the project. That would give you a false high value.  It would have been much better to randomly select 3-4 panels off of the line and use those.

Heliene's panels did not come out on top.  Our review shows that their performance is of equal quality to all of the other manufacturers.  You can read my earlier comments on how someone might of twisted the Kortright demonstration to their advantage.


We got 5 of these panels to test (not one).  Every panel has a slightly different peak value but their daily harvesting value is close.  If we choose the best one of these 5 panels to talk about, then we would be squewing the results.  We didn't do that.  They were placed on our south facing roof to fill in some gaps.  As we are operating polycrystalline panels - 60 cell type, we are able to extrapolate directly as to their performance. The panels were installed by Flexible Solar of Windsor who also installed our microfit project. These are the best guys out there to deal with.

A bit of information first about these panels.

We were able to get Heliene to ship us these panels in late February for installation in March.  The bad winter delayed install until early April.  The panels have been running for over 2 weeks.  Heliene also  produce a 17.5% efficient panel in the second quarter of 2014 but it is mono-crystalline. That given them a 280 W 60 cell mono solar panel.

I chose these panels as I needed 72 cell panels to help utilize as much as possible my south facing roof. Initial results are proving extremely good.  My original  panels were suppose to flash 3-4% on the + side.

A result of 20% above our existing panels was expected.  These panels are showing excellent low light gathering abilities along with a measured output about 21% above an equivalent 250 W panel (flashed to 262 W).  Because of a 1-3% burn in loss that normally occurs within the first week of operation, all solar panels should flash +3% above nameplate.  Some manufactures are ignoring this and charging a surcharge for + flash ratings.  Heliene did not partake in this questionable practice which I am very pleased that they didn't.  I was informed recently, that the glass used in these panels is stippled to improve the panel's efficiency.  Every little bit helps, even a small 1% improvement from stippled glass will give you more money in your pocket over the life time of the panels, which I hope to be well over 30 years.

Conclusion:

Based on our SolarEdge panel monitoring system, everything that Heliene states in their product description is 100% true.  They also use a Kynar (PVDF) backing material which is very similar to Tedlar which has become a standard in the industry.  Kynar is reported to being used in Germany for the past 25 years with excellent results.  I can not comment of the life of the panels and if and when I do, it will be too late for all of us anyway.  The panels do have an excellent backing material and long life should not be an issue.  The panels are also built for the Canadian snow load.  To date, there is only about a 3 Watt (1%) difference at peak output between all of the 5 panels.  With SolarEdge, it is best to review the output at the end of the day as some optimizers are slow to report their values.  At peak power, they were about 21% better than my existing panels which is excellent.  The day did yield our highest kw hrs but the sun or sky was NOT at it's clearest possible value as we did not peak as high as other days.

 I give them my 5 STAR Rating.

NOTE:  Being retired, because of the small income from the Solar Panels, we were able to re-start our support of a child in need from Nicaragua.  If you are better off, please also consider helping those in need though the Christian Children Fund of Canada.  For the small cost of your daily Tim's Coffee you can make a big difference in a family's life.

Do you want to have an extra $60,000 to $100,000 to spend over the next 20 years? At the end of your 20 year contract grid tie and Never pay for your electricity again.  It is the project that keeps giving and giving.  See my design post.

If you have been wondering whether or not to go solar, I strongly recommend that you give

 Steve a call at: 

Steve -519 962 9218

He will give you an honest analysis of your house to see if it is worthwhile to install a microfit solar panel system.  For what we earn, we will payoff our mortgage on our retirement house. We still have to pay utilities and taxes but we are way ahead of where we were and we are lowering the carbon dioxide levels as best as we can.  A basic system will produce about $5,000 per year with straight string inverters.  Stay away from that and go with optimizers.  With a few tweaks, you could produce $6-7000 per year.  I still don't trust microinverters to last much more than 12 years with a horrible replacement cost as they are under the panels. Read all of my posts, starting from the beginning to get a better understanding of solar.

We do not work for Flexible Solar serving Windsor and Southern Ontario.  I do however promote any honest person in their business where I have had the pleasure of working with them.  That is really hard to find in the solar business.  These guys use the best components for a long system life.  You can even ask them for a copy of my engineering specification that you can use to outline the work specification.  I am 100% sure that Mike Holmes would say that is the way to do things to protect yourself.  They also use the best guys out there to install your system.

NOTE:  We booked a holiday in Florida in March.  The microfit Solar Panel system's March's production covered the rental at the Resort plus $300 towards food and gas. You might say that the Sun gave us a holiday in the Sun.  We sure enjoyed ourselves.

Solar Harvesting microfit March 2014

March 2014 Masters Microfit PV Solar Harvesting Results:

March 2014 has been an outstanding month for solar harvesting.  We hit our first 3 MW hrs of solar harvesting and our highest daily peak of 75 kW hrs (78 kW hrs adjusted)..  During the month, the attitude  of the sun increased by 11.7 degrees and the sunlight hours increased by 1 hr 26 min.  We maintained our system by removing snow covering the panels which just will not melt off on the cold days.  I calculate that if the month was clear every day (dreaming), we could have harvested 2.5 + MW hrs ($1,000 for the month). We achieved a level of around 1.4 MW ($558.4 for the month). hrs which is up from February's result of 0.967 MW hrs.  Both are highs for this area compared to previous years.  I believe that this is due to the Polar Vortex keeping the skies clearer.  We saw very few completely sunny days to see just how much we could harvest.  Generally we started out with the ability to harvest 70+ kW hrs and ended the month around 78 kW hrs+.  System start-up problems are to be corrected at the end of the month adding about 400 W more capacity at peak times.

I concluded this:  The capability to harvest solar is always there, it just may be hidden above the clouds.  On a bright cloudy day we still produce 4-5 kW's.  For 2/3rds of the month we harvested more than 40 kW hrs per day.  For more than 1/3rd of the month we exceed 64 kW hrs per day.  We had 2 bad snow days reducing production below 5 kW hrs per day and several very dark and overcast days.  The last week of the month was heavily clouded thus preventing us from hitting 1.5 MW hrs for the month.  For example, our daily use is 22-23 kW hrs which we pay separately to Hydro-One at around 10 cents per kW while they pay us 39.6 cents per kW.  There were only 8 days in the month that what we harvested didn't exceed what we used.  That means there were 23 days in the month that we harvested far exceeded what we used. We all don't like those dark days period.

On 30 March, we finally had a great solar day to test the system.  System problems were not yet corrected and we harvested 75 kW hrs.  Most interesting is that the East/West array harvested 15% more than the average south facing panel.  The array is now starting to work as designed.  It will only get better as the angles move to optimum and the days have longer sunlight hours.  The wind was 7 km from the North. That direction has the smallest amount of cooling on the south facing solar panels but was good for the East/West panels.  We barely hit the 9 kW peak for the day.  The day was very clear.  I believe that the little amount of cooling from the wind, caused the panels to produce at a lower rate.  It also could have been high level cloud disruption, which is really hard to see. I was even able to sit in a sheltered corner and soak up a few rays with my shirt off. The temperature was 9 degrees C.  I was sitting in a 5500 deg K radiant field (sunlight).

Historically we are starting to enter the best time of the year for harvesting, March to October.  Peak is expected to be in May.  Ironically, the weakest solar day is 5th of July (aphelion - farthest away from the sun) due to the earth's orbit by about 7% less solar radiation.  This and the increased negative effects of the temperature tend to make May better than June.  Again this is totally dependent on the weather.  Here is a link to see how clear the sky actually is:

http://cleardarksky.com/f.php?Mn=Solar%20Power&p=4C2700Detroit

I also use accuweather's radar and satellite combo.  This helps me to see the weather patterns and any approaching weather front and of course any high wind alerts. Just last week, near the end of the month, I was monitoring our site at around 3 PM (8 kW) and saw the output soar about 10.4 kW.  I knew what was happening.  The sky just in front of a cloud front is normally very, very clear.  Even though we had passed solar noon by 90 min, we hit our maximum output for about 10 min and solar output dropped when the clouds hit.  I was expecting us to hit in the mid 70's that day but the clouds said no (63 kW instead)  Still a good day but not a peak day.

Our Dynamically Positioned Array: (Photos on a previous post)

Our West-East array started to exceed the results of the south facing panels by about 5% at the first part of the month.  Only on 1-2 days we could not operate it due to high winds. The angle of sunrise to the panels is still not ideal but I have noticed peak values of 80%+ from the panels.  The early morning shading issues of the array to the lower south facing panels now dissipates around 10:30 am.  As the sun rises more from the east, this will totally disappear.  By the end of the month, the array was posting 15 % better than  south facing panels as seen below.  Load following arrays typically harvest 75% more than fixed panels.  Based on this number, we might expect to see a virtual installed capacity of 11+ kW (actual installed is 9.9 kW).  Over twenty years that might add another $10,000 in electrical harvesting.  It is really nice to see the East/West panels maintaining a good output while the south facing panels pass their daily peak.  This helps to maintain a high rate of energy harvesting for a longer period of the day.  And that spells more $$ in the bank.

The above is a diagram of our panel layout.  The black panel needs the optimizer to be replace.  Panel 1.019 will be replaced this week.  Total production just under 75 kW hrs.  We lost about 3 kW hrs due to the start-up items, which will be repaired this week.  The vertical group represents the West/East array while the other the South Facing Panels.  The array shows an approximately 14% more harvesting than south.  If all of the panels did this well, we would have harvested 89 kW hr and not our 75 kW hrs.  We are very pleased to see this improved result in just over one month.

Here is an almost perfect production graph for that day:

Notice that solar noon peak is at 1:35 PM here.  We start making some power at around 7:15 AM until 7:45 PM.  We try to grab every Watt that we can until the Sun sets at 7:58 PM.  This is a penny grabbing game.  If you can harvest one extra kW per week, that amounts to $416. over the 20 years and beyond.  That is like running our kitchen's 4 W LED for 15 days straight.  Now translate that to 1 kW more per day and you end up with close to $3000 over 20 years.  For us, that is more than 2 years worth of our annual electric bill.  That is why I call it the "penny game".

UPDATE: AUGUST 2014

The array peaked at about 28% more than south facing panels and approximately 50% more than fixed east panels.  Fixed east panels continue to produce some power up to around 6 PM.  Maximum system peak was around 92 kW hours (one great day).  2014 due to the cooler weather and more sun, we will expect to harvest 18-20 MW for the year.  All of our testing has basically been completed.  Being retired, the net income from these panels pay for themselves and pay for our remaining house mortgage which is around $115,000.  So now we only have to pay for the taxes, utilities and up keep.  What a nice retirement planning package.  It also lowers A/C costs by 40%.  We consider this a Win/Win situation.  So, provided you can finance at low interest rates, have an good sun exposure with a large roof area facing south or south east, you will do fine.  Check first with the Flexible Solar people.  I am still PO'd with the other guys who don't care about their customers and will basically lie to your face. Some are much worst than others.  If you follow my suggestions you will be fine.  It is the best thing that we have done in years.  Last month we were paid $860. plus HST.  Yes, some people made more than double this but those days are long gone.  We expect a December low of around $400.  This will depend on how bad the clouds are.  An amazing thing happened this year, the system peaked in July and not in May.

Raw Results:

Last month I predicted to average between 40-50 kW hrs per day.  The actual number is just over 45 kW hrs per day. The first part of the month exceeded that while due to cloud cover, the latter part decreased a bit.  I predicted that we would peak around the high 60's.  While we did that on the 3rd of the month.  We could have been in the 70's for many days but the clouds kept us from that.  Never the less, overall production was up over 50% from last year.

April's Prediction:

We gain an extra 78 minutes of sunlight by the end of the month.  The sun's attitude will also increase by 10.2 degrees.  We lose one day as  April has 30 days.  Thus a 1.78-1.8 MW or more is not unreasonable.  I believe that our system can produce more than 80 kW hrs in a day.  The local high I believe is 83 kW hrs. The negative effect of our poor roof angle has all but past.  The East/West array is now out producing straight south facing panels on sunny days.  I expect this to increase to 20-30% or more this month due to the longer sun light hours and better angle of attack.  Average days should be 50-60 kWhrs.  We will have corrected some issues with one optimizer and two panels.  Income for the April should meet or exceed $700.  We also expect to meet or exceed that value for the next 6 months (April-September).  All of this will depend on seasonal cloud cover.  Even on cloudy but bright days we should peak at around 5-6000 kW.

Conclusion:

With 80% or more of your system facing south with a good pitch, you will do quite well with your microfit program.  Even a modestly sized house like we have (1100 sq ft roof), you could produce more than the 10 kW microfit limit.  Our inverters restrict us from producing more than 10 kW as per the contract.  I contacted the Ministry of Energy to give them my feedback that the microfit level should be increased to 20 kW.  An average 200 A service results in about 35 kW.  If the microfit limit was set to 20 kW a lot of people would be happier and the country as a whole would benefit. The Green Energy Act does not put this restriction on the homeowner.  It is 100% organization generated.  I do not expect to see any changes and is not in the spirit of the Green Energy Act.

Do you want to have an extra $80,000 to $100,000 to spend over the next 20 years?

If you have been wondering whether or not to go solar, I strongly recommend that you give

 Steve a call at: 

Steve -519 962 9218

He will give you an honest analysis of your house to see if it is worthwhile to install a microfit solar panel system.  For what we earn, we will payoff our mortgage on our retirement house. We still have to pay utilities and taxes but we are way ahead of where we were and we are lowering the carbon dioxide levels as best as we can.  A basic system will produce about $5,000 per year with straight string inverters.  Stay away from that and go with optimizers.  With a few tweaks, you could produce $6-7000 per year.  I still don't trust microinverters to last much more than 12 years with a horrible replacement cost as they are under the panels. Read all of my posts, starting from the beginning to get a better understanding of solar.

Being retired, because of the small income from the Solar Panels, we were able to re-start our support of a child in need from Nicaragua.  If you are better off, please also consider helping those in need though the Christian Children Fund of Canada.

We do not work for Flexible Solar serving Windsor and Southern Ontario.  I do however promote any honest person in their business where I have had the pleasure of working with them.  That is really hard to find in the solar business.  These guys use the best components for a long system life.  You can even ask them for a copy of my engineering specification that you can use to outline the work specification.  I am 100% sure that Mike Holmes would say that is the way to do things to protect yourself.  They also use the best guys out there to install your system.

NOTE:  We booked a holiday in Florida in March.  The microfit Solar Panel system covered the rental at the Resort plus $300 towards food and gas. You might say that the Sun gave us a holiday in the Sun.  We sure enjoyed ourselves.

How to make access to your roof safer in winter.

Safer Method to access a snow covered roof:

Attention:   Please refer to my previous posts on roof access and using ladders safely.

This has been a very snowy winter.  I thought that we had seen the last of the snow in March.  I have strict rules about accessing my roof in winter.  We had a large snow fall several days ago on Sunday.  I went to clean the snow off of our panels and achieved it with all but one panel.  This panel was 70% clear and simply not producing any real power compared to its neighbors.  We are waiting for better weather to fix 3 problems that have developed.  This means that we are already down by about 400 Watts peak.  I wanted to get up and clear the remaining snow off of that panel safely.  The panel is located at my ridge line of my south facing roof.

Monday and Sunday afternoon we had periods of great sunlight.  As Monday promised to be a great solar day, I took my broom and cleared several locations on my east facing roof and let the sun do the rest.  On a great day, we have about 60 kW of energy hitting the roof from 11 am to 3 pm.  It didn't take long to see wet black roofing shingles with steam rising from the roof.  I could now enter and exit the roof safely.  I could also move from the garage roof to the house roof without any problems.  I was able to quickly and safely, clear the panel and our two sky lights. The power from the panel shot up to 225 Watts almost immediately.  As an after thought, one could also tie a rope to one of the rail anchors and use it with accessing the roof year round.  Solar is about harvesting the pennies that will turn into dollars over the month and years of the installation.  We are hoping to clear after interest and capital depreciation about $100 per week for the year.That is not a lot of money but again it is equal to another old age pension coming in and the end of paying for your electrical bills for ever.

 Let me clear that up, ( Many people have the wrong idea about solar panels.) you will make more money selling the power that you generate verse what you will use for your home.  Grid-tie is the way to go and NOT an expense battery system. The power generated fluctuates much too often as clouds pass by the sun.

 The money that you earn could also be used to pay for:

•  all or most of your monthly mortgage ($100,000 over 20 years)
•  take 2-3 nice vacations a year.  
• Golfing green fees
• Boating fees

I know that this is only 4th of March but at the end of February I forecast that we hoped to exceed 70 kW hrs by the end of March.  Well even with our 3 problem areas, we harvested almost 69 kW hrs on Monday. I also predicted that we would average 40-50 kW hrs per day.  Even with  one very poor day due to the snow, we are averaging 40 kW hrs per day.  It's too early for the month but we are on track.  Weather permitting, we should see even higher peak days as the month progresses.  Early in the month we should expect on a so, so day, 30-40 kW hr (we got 35 kW hr) and later in the month around 40-50 kW hr per day.  It is very important to harvest the most that you can during the off days when the sun doesn't really come out from behind the clouds.  I am always amazed to see 5 or 6 kW's of power with dull sunlight.

• Your best months of the year run from March to October.  You want to cover your expenses during the other months.  In February 2014 we grossed $383. of power generated.  In short, we made money in one of the poorer months of the year. We expect to more than double this amount in May. This is dependent on the weather.  Last summer was extremely wet and cloudy.  Perhaps this summer will be back to sunny normal.

We are very happy with our system and the income that it is producing.  To us it is a no brainier, but you must be really careful.  I would love to post the BS that others told me but I am being kind not to. Please trust me when I say that we now have seen 3 roofs with panels on the north side in Windsor.  With normal string inverters that would limit the output to the lowest value.  Also there most likely is no monitoring system so the owner can't see what is happening.  Horrible installers, run from them and give Flexible solar a call.  Remember that there is a consumer alert against Canadian Solar of Windsor.

If you are thinking about going solar, then I give my highest recommendations to Flexible Solar Solutions serving Windsor and Southern Ontario.  They will tell you straight up if it is good idea or not.

 Just call:

Steve -519 962 9218

If you are already a microfit power producer with a DC limit on your installation, please write to the Energy Review Board to ask that it be removed so that you can have a real 10 kW microFIT installation limited only on the AC side.  IMHO, this DC limitation is a direct violation by OPA to discriminate against the small home owner.  The next jump is to a FIT program from 10+ to 500,000 kW.  Very few do the max so they are not limited at all.  Permit the home owner to produce the maximum green energy that they can with the 10 kW limit.  I also believe that should be a 20-30 kW limit and not 10 kW.

February 2014 Summary - Optimization of your Solar Panel System

February 2014 Summary:

What an interesting month February 2014 was.  The first week we were plagued with snow storms.  Only the 3rd had a moderate production of 45 kW hr. I was out of service during this time so no snow removal occurred.  The rest of the month was very good.  Overall we exceeded our expectations.  We benefited from the polar vortex.  Solar panels work great in cold temps.  Add that cold and clear normally means very little high level losses.  You can tell that by the output of your panels. Peak on 28 Feb 61 kW hr. Good day with intermittent clouds.

This is what I noticed during this month:

1.0 The sun's position during dawn significantly moved towards the east.

2.0 The sun's attitude during the month increased 9.1 degrees from 30.8 degrees

3.0  The day's sunshine increased by 1 hour and 11 min. (approx 10%).

4.0  After the 15th, on most average days we were getting 30-40 kW hrs.  On good days this was in the mid 50's.  It should have peaked above 60 but the clouds prevented that and no great days occurred (no clouds)

6.0  All of this helped the east west array to harvest daily equal to the south facing panels after around the 22nd of Feb.

7.0  When the snow melted, I installed safety chains on the array.  I still do not want to operate it in wind speed in excess of 20 mph. from the west.  A strong wind under neath your panels and you have a sail.

8.0  Overall solar harvesting exceeded 960 kW hrs for a 28 day month.

9.0  Initial start up fixes are scheduled for early March.

10.0  On bright cold days, windy days, the panels exceeded there design output by at times over 27 W.  This is because the cooling of the surface is ideal for solar production with no high level clouds
11.0 On two days I had to lower the array due to high winds.  Normally in mid position (horizontal), flat, the wind has no or little effect.  Safest position is hugging the roof.  You will notice that tracking arrays do the same thing in high winds.  We have the added benefit that roof hugging is good for one side at any time of the day and the other side can be flat reducing harvesting by about 20% only.  Don't play with the wind.  If you boat, you know what winds can do.  We don't lose as much as we think up until around 11 AM the west array will shade two panels.  This limits their production.  This is a seasonal problem and will disappear shortly as the sun start to rise more easterly.  Daily production results only show a very limited loss now.
12.0  We benefited from the polar vortex as at times it was very cold and clear maxing out our system at times

We expect to earn around $380 for February.  That is great for this time of year.  You must still remove any snow that fouls the panels to maximize the production.

Expectations for March:

If the weather holds, we expect to earn on average days 40-50 kW hrs.  Month's target is 1.4 MW hr.  I am optimistic. I expect peak days to be 60- 70 kW hrs with possibly low 70's near the end of the month.  The attitude of the sun will increase by 12 degrees during March and the daylight hours by 1 hour and 26 min.  The higher sun angle means near perfect radiance absorption and the longer day more harvesting.  This will peak on the 19th of May.  We are now entering the best time of the year for solar harvesting.  May is normally the best month when June should be.  That is what effects the warmer temperatures have on the system.  Also expect the sun to rise more easterly every day until 21 June.  All of this is sunshine dependent.

NOTES:

If you have a microfit contract that is DC limited, please refer to my blog and write to the Energy Review Board to complain that this limitation is in violation a the 10 kW microfit legislation. 

If you are interested in making some money, give Steve a call at Flexible Solar Solution.  He will give you a no BS analysis of your system.  Be ware of the others.  You can read all of my posts to educate yourself and be a better consumer.  Don't give any money until you get an offer to connect and then be careful.  Remember that you can claim back all of your HST spent to install your system.

We are very happy with our system and the income that it is producing.  We strongly believe that there should be no limitations on the DC side, only on the AC side. To us it is a no brainier, but you must be really careful.  I would love to post the BS that others told me but I am being kind not to.  Just call:

Steve -519 962 9218

What is the best solar panel system for Ontario's microfit program?

What is the best microfit solar panel system to use in 2014?

The post that I see on the net is way out of date (2011).  It is an orphan as you no longer can contact the poster.  

Let us first set some design criteria to look at the various system:  Solar harvesting involves installing a system that best meets our needs.  It is not just choosing solar panels but rather looking at the bigger picture that will occur over the projects 30 year life span.

1.0 Safety - you want the system to shut off when you turn it off. Fire fighters want this.

2.0 Maximum return on your investment.  You want this.

3.0 Maintainability - you want to be able to maintain the components as easily as possible.  If maintenance is or will be required, locate it in an easy to access location.  It does effect your ROI big time.

4.0 Long life components

5.0 Ability to monitor each panel's performance.  You want to know if something is wrong so that it can be fixed.

6.0  Individual component failure should not effect the entire system.  Aside from inverters, each panel should operate independently of the other panels.

7.0 Ability to handle shading issues.  Almost every one has some shading issues.

8.0 Design flexibility

9.0 Long life solar panels.  Solar panels with a tedlar or equivalent backing material. Try to use a high efficiency panel with good high temperature operation.  Polycrystalline panels tends to be lower cost but give a better ROI.  Mono panels seem to be over priced.  Make sure that the panel has a strong, stiff frame to support the glass.

Sun power makes one of the best solar panels out there.  If one cell is fouled, then you get the power from all of the other 59 cells.  To fully utilize this great feature, you need to also have optimizers installed.  Sun Power has linked up with Fronius which to my understanding do not yet have optimizers.  That is what I would call a not too bright act.  You will lose the benefit of the solar panel design.

Discussion:

There is currently only one system that meets all of these criteria.  That is a SolarEdge string inverter system with their optimizers.

1.0 Safety- Unlike other systems that maintain their 600 V bus voltage when shut off, Solar Edge maintains 1 Volt at each panel when shutdown/off.

2.0  Optimizers give you the maximum output for each panel and do not degrade the entire string's output when one or more panel is shaded giving maximum ROI.  This is a huge advantage.

3.0 All inverters will require maintenance or replacement after 10-12 years.  Locate inverters at side of house makes this a low cost situation verse under every panel.

4.0 SolarEdge Optimizers use ceramic capacitors verse electrolytic (shorter life -expect 10-12yrs for EC).

5.0 Built in panel monitoring system with optimizers

6.0 Optimizers isolate each panel

7.0 Optimizers handle shaded panels

8.0 You no longer have to have all panels on a string face in only one direction.  You can mix up directions, south and east on the same string.  This is a huge advantage for our installation.

Summary:

I am not going to review every string inverter out there.  You can read my earlier posts that warn you against using micro inverters because they can limit the panel's output and will fail with horrible maintainability under the panels.  At this time, I know of no other manufacturer who does this.  One major string inverter manufacturer opted to go micro inverters and later on add optimizers to their line up.  I believe that they chose the wrong path to go to.

Now use FlexibleSolar Solutions from Windsor Ontario to install your system and you are away.  Steve and Glen will help you to chose which solar panels you may want to install in your system, so give them a call.

Steve -519 962 9218

Optimization of your Microfit Solar Panel System.

Click to photos/graphs to enlarge viewing:

How to Optimize Your Microfit Solar Panel System

I have written all ready about the optimization features of our 10 kW microfit solar panel system installed by Flexible Solar of Windsor Ontario.  I believe that I highlighted 3 optimization features of our program.  Only one feature remained to be verified. We need to verify that the array will harvest more energy than straight South facing panels.  This will require looking at all results up to and including 21 June.  Initial results show that all is working as designed.

East-West Dynamic Tilting Array:

I designed a two dimensional array located on our East-West facing garage.  This consists of two -4 panel arrays each located on the East and West roof at the peak line.  The purpose was to have for example, the west facing array face east in the AM and the east face west in the PM.  Control is via a PLC and is automatic.

Here is a photo taken looking West to show both arrays in the AM.  Not a good solar day so far.

Here is the array looking from the West to East.  You can see the full extension of the West panels and the optimizers under neath the panels.

We even got some geese taking a look.  The alumimum plate is to stiffen the panel against vibration caused by wind loading.  Safety chains now installed and eliminate wind vibration. I still have yet to install the automatic shutdown when wind exceeds 20 mph.

Initially, during December and January, we were able to harvest about 80% of what a good South facing panel will do.  South facing panels being the best and the standard for comparison.

Here is the results from 19th February.  Total harvesting was 46 kW hours.  Not too bad for a day that was terrible in the AM with scattered clouds in the PM.  You will see two panels not producing well.  One is from a defective panel and the other from a defective optimizer.  These will be replace in a few weeks once we can again access the roof with out any snow or ice on it.

The array is shown as the vertical bunch of 8 panels.  The other is the south facing roof. Notice panel 2.0.20 was better than most south facing panels except  those which harvested 1.14 kW hours.  This is approximately two months from the winter solace on 21 December.  We have harvested approximately 1.4 MW hours and expect to harvest 16-18 MW hours.  That means we have harvested 8.75% of our annual harvesting.

The benefit of have a SolarEdge system with optimizers is evident from looking at the variation of output from each panel.  With a straight string inverter system, all of the south panels would be forced to produce the lowest value achieved by you worst panel.  In our case that would be horrible as one panel is only producing 70% of what it should be.  I bought two spare panels for this reason.  The problem with the optimizer just started I believe in February.  It is covered under warrenty.

In perspective, for approximately 4 months of the year you will produce less than south facing panels on sunny days.  On cloudy days, all panels produce equally.  That means for the peak harvesting months your gain will equal or exceed south facing panels when you harvest 82% of your energy.  Panels 1.0.18 and 20 show little loss from the shading from the array that occurs before 11 AM.

The proof of concept is still on going.  To me it only makes sense to use your panels as much as you can though out the day.

How much the array will harvest over and above normal south facing panels is left to be verified.  I can see before 10 AM that west/east at time harvest 50% more than south facing panels.  We still are no where near the optimum AM/PM angle for the panels to achieve their design output. 

To repeat, I designed the system to be optimized from March 21 to Sept 21.  By having some high functioning East/West facing panels you help to square up you harvesting curve or to maximize harvesting.  Basically, you want to have your inverter output to be as high as possible for as long as possible.

As a side note, it is fun to watch the solar gain increase, some times on a daily basis.  This is because the sun's attitude in the sky is increasing daily.  I can see for the past week that the daily peak is steadily increasing from the previous day's result as long as it is sunny around 1 PM.  I though that this would be much slower.  We suffer from a low roof pitch of 22.5 degrees which will disappear by 21 March though to September. For the month of February, the sun's attitude increases by 9 degrees in the sky.  From December 21 there is a 15.6 degree increase the the sun's attitude. By the end of March this will be 27.7 degree increase from December 21.  In addition, the hours of sunlight are getting much longer.  We even saw a robin at our bird feeders yesterday.

At the start of February, I was forecasting a minimum of 20 kW hrs per day with a maximum of 30kW hours for a cloudy day.  We have been fortunate that even with the two panel problems and some snow issues, we peaked at near 58 kW hours on one day and over the past 10 days only had one day below 31 kW hours.

Accordingly, for March we are now forecasting 30-40 kW hrs minimum with peaks about 60-70 kW hours of harvesting on sunny days.  We just might achieve 800 kW hours for February (28 days).  Possible March harvesting of 1 MW hour or more.

If you are thinking about going solar, then I give my highest recommendations to Flexible Solar Solutions serving Windsor and Southern Ontario.  They will tell you straight up if it is good idea or not.

 Just call:

Steve -519 962 9218

Ontario's Power Authority's microfit program - Acting in bad faith against the environment and the economy?

Ontario's Power Authority microfit Program

We started up a microfit program late in 2013.  As a home owner, we were limited to 10 kW on the DC side.  As an engineer, who worked in the old Ontario Hydro system, that makes absolutely NO sense to me to limit the DC side of a Photo Voltaic System with a 10 kW AC restriction in place already.  With 3% inverter loses, 2% line loses, 3% panel burn in during the first week and an overall 20% reduction in 20 years; you will start with a 9.2 kW microfit and end up with a 7.5 kW microfit in 20 years.  In addition, the panels themselves are over rated based on ideal dream conditions that seldom if ever occur.  With two 5 kW AC to DC inverters in place, you simply can't produce more than 10 kW AC period.  It didn't start out that way.  Some one changed it.  Who is acting (again) in bad faith?

IMPORTANT UPDATE: SEE JUNE 2015 POST ON KILLING OUR OCEANS NOW

Let me explain.

Green Energy Program:

This world is in Big sh## with the C02 levels currently around the 400 ppm mark.  For a healthier planet, a level of 350 ppm is the target.  Almost all home operated microfit, roof mounted systems use solar panels based on silicon wafer technology.  We must try to control CO2 emissions for the sake of the future populations and generate as much electricity possible from non-carbon based systems.  It has been my observations, that few people are interested in doing this.

As we must or want to have electricity to use, I am against closing our already built coal fired stations.  There is a large C02 foot print to build these systems and they should be used until it is no longer economical to do so.  China is building a large coal fired electrical system, so what is the point.  Perhaps, don't build any more but it makes good sense to use what we already have invested in to its maximum.  The exhaust gases could be cleaned up as is economically practical.  They don't have that many years left to run anyway.  You might then want to put in natural gas, wind and solar on these sites.

Benefits of Solar Panel Systems:

Of the green energy programs, solar energy is one, if not the best renewable energy sources available.

1.0  Solar energy from the the sun is free (input only).

2.0  Solar energy produces no harmful C02 gas emissions or waste products like nuclear energy.

3.0  Roof mounted solar panels do not take up any valuable agricultural land like wind and big power stations.

4.0  All most all home owners could install some solar panels

5.0  No birds have ever died from flying into solar panels, unlike large wind turbines

6.0  Solar panels blend into the natural roof of a house and extend the roof's life by keeping it cooler and shading it from UV radiation.  Thus they also help to keep your attic cooler and lowering your Air Conditioning requirements.

7.0  Solar panels produce energy during the peak energy periods of the day, thus helping the power company to meet the demand at the most expensive period to do so.

8.0  Solar panels systems have a long life span, of 25 to 50 years.

9.0  Existing power plants are reaching their life expectancy of the plants.  Building in capacity now makes good sense.
10.0  The economy:  If we have not DC limit, only the AC limit, the Ontario Manufacturers can make more panels and means more jobs in the industry period.

11.0  Generating  sites are among the power users.  No environmental approvals required.  Best location possible for generating sites.

Production Problems with Solar Panels:

When trying to harvest solar energy from the sun, there are many factors that work against you.  Here are some of them.

1.0  Sun light for only 30-40 % of the day.

2.0  Storing energy for use during non-solar periods. Very costly.

3.0  Any fouling of the panels from: bird droppings, over head tree shading, structure shading from other buildings, snow; ice fouling.

4.0  Reduced output during higher temperature days

5.0  Weather related, clouds passing by, over cast days, rain days, weather in general.

6.0  Pitch of your roof is not normally designed for maximum solar collection.

7.0  Very low solar harvesting for 6 months of the year as the days grow short and the sun dips low on the horizon. 

8.0  Interference from high clouds and dust, S04 particles from volcanoes - Reduces light concentration.

9.0  Smog

10.0 Morning frost in winter fouls panels during startup

11.0  Seasonal attitude and angle of light hitting the panels.  There is a large variance over the year.

12.0 House roof alignment not south facing

13.0 Neighbors trees shading roof.

14.0 Poor system design using straight string inverters

15.0 Poor panel design not producing power from good cells when others are fouled

16.0 Perfectly clear skies, cool temperatures where used to set the STC for the panel's rating.  These are seldom ever seen in the field and never after 1 month of operation due to panel burn in losses.
17.0  Wind speed above 20 mph cause tracking systems to shut down or lay flat.
18.0  Poor access in winter for any maintenance if required.
19.0  Replacement maintenance of DC/AC inverters after 12 years of use.

All of the above factors make it difficult to harvest solar energy.  Why has some one limited the home owners ability to produce the maximum energy that they could with the 10 kW AC programs.  We few must harvest as much as possible for those many who don't give a damn about the global warming problem.

The obvious design solution is to install more panels on the DC side to offset these conditions which the DC limitations prevent you from doing. 

The original contracts DID NOT have this stupid restriction and paid 85.5 cents per kW hour.  Jumping to the next level under the Fit program, it has a 500,000 kW restriction, so very few people would be limited on their DC side.  These are big businesses and institutions.

The home owner loses again. 

 Home owners are prevented from utilizing a standard in electrical generation called efficiency of scale or size.  Here you might say, size does matter.  There is also no rate adjustment over the 20 years.  The contract and restrictions is 100% one sided.

Compared with conventional electrical generating systems, solar panel systems have a horrible capacity factor rating well below 10%.  Normally you want your power plant to have a capacity factor above 80% and as high as you can get it.  Capacity factor is output over output 24x7x365

Now having lowed the tariff rate to 39.6 cents per kW hour, my bank reports no new applications to be used for microfit.  

Discussion:

The first question is why the 10 kW limit?  We should be able to feed back into the grid from a 200 Amp service over 30 kW of energy.  But let us leave that for now and stay with the 10 kW limit.

Solar energy production starts at first light and increase to a maximum output for the day in an inverse bell curve.  You may peak about 9 kW for less than 1 hour per day for most of the year.  It is impossible to reach and maintain 10 kW AC under these conditions, never mind maintaining it for several hours.  Your inverters will Always prevent you from exceeding 10 kW.  So why is the home owner being deliberately discriminated against?

Some one decided to not only limit this to 10 kW but to add an additional restriction of 10 kW on the DC side.  As a design engineer, if you asked me to design a system to produce 10 kW AC, I would install panels on the south, east and west facing sides of a house.  I would want the system to produce 80% of maximum after 2hrs..  In order to do so, I would most likely have to have 15 to 20 kW of panels on the DC side, if not more installed in the system.  I would also add future panels to adjust for the natural decay in output from these panels.  Of course, most people do not have large enough roofs for a perfect system and few have the proper roof orientation of a South facing roof.

My house feeds 4 other neighbors who are NOT harvesting solar energy (shame on them).  I believe that less than 1% of house holds in Ontario do this.  Therefore, those who do should be able to help to fill in the gap.  The few must help the many to reduce C02 levels.

It is not logical or beneficial to the planet to limit your production to 10 kW on the DC side.  On the AC side my two 5 kW inverters automatically limit my ability to produce at any anyone time no more than 10 kW AC so why impose this hardship.  We have already had to adsorb the very low tariff rate of 39.6 cents per kW hr.  The first people got 85 cents with no DC limit but had higher panel costs.

People have jumped on the solar panel band wagon and for the most part, tried to squeeze as much money from the home owner as possible.  Cost of building permits based on the number of panels (?),  engineering assessment for a relatively new building using trusses is not warranted.  A hugely ridiculous $1500 + HST connection fee from Hydro-One. Hydo-One's connection cost is the same that I paid for 1875 W of solar panels.  That is almost 20% of the cost of my solar panels!  Other utilities are charging around $200 mark.  The price of panels has fallen but the installation and fixed costs remain about the same. 

If you would like to try to change things, then write your concerns to the Ontario Energy Board.  The more suppliers and customers give their feedback, the better are the chances to change things.  By limiting the 10 kW microfit to 10 kW DC, the Ontario industry is hurt badly by decreased production of 20-50%.

Ask:  Why is the Ontario Power Authority microfit home owner being discriminated against by these policies and the larger Fit customers are not?  Our kW's directly feed other customers without any appreciable line loses.