Tucson Solar Test Yard Nicholas Davidson And Ryan Price Under the Supervision of Dr. Alex Cronin With help from Daniel Cormode And Vincent Lonji University of Arizona Department of Physics

Project Background Information Facility is property of Tucson Electric Power Most Equipment Approximately 5 years old Dr. Cronin took over the research at the yard Fall 08 First data collected November 13, 2008 Financial support provided by TEP, the Arizona Research Institute for Solar Energy (AzRISE), and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Project Goals Short Term: –Install equipment to monitor: DC Voltage and Current AC Power Temperature Long Term: –PV performance (efficiency) in Tucson –Effect of variables such as temperature and fill factor –Test new PV technologies

Equipment / PV Panel Types 22 PV (Photo Voltaic) Strings –Approximately 600 panels –10 Manufacturers (BP, Sanyo, Shell, Global Solar) –Approximately 90 kW peak power to grid –Total cost 9 Inverter Types –Xantrex, Fronius, Beacon Power Each String has a DC sensors box and AC power meter

PV Panels Inverter AC Meter Sample PV String To Grid

4 Primary PV Technologies Material: Polycrystalline Silicon Efficiency: 14.1% Cost: ~ $4 / Watt Material: Thin Film Silicon Efficiency: 11.1% Cost: ~ $ 3 / Watt Material: CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium Selenide) Efficiency: 5.8% Cost: ~ $ 3 / Watt Made in Tucson, Arizona Material: Monocrystalline Silicon Efficiency: 15.6% Cost: ~ $ 5 / Watt

PV Panels Inverter AC Meter Sample PV String To Grid DC Sensors Box

Hall Probe Input from Panels Voltage Divider Output to Inverter and Data Logger

PV Panels Inverter AC Meter Sample PV String To Grid DC Sensors Box Data Acquisition System

Data Acquisition AC Power Meter –Special cards installed in each AC meter –Record 60 “clicks” for each kW AC to grid Temperature –Thermocouple for each string Data Loggers –Continuously monitor each of the sensor devices –Local Network –Web Interface

Calibration and Data Analysis Each string calibrated separately Data collected every second –Averaged every minute –Eliminates system noise –Makes data files more manageable

DC Voltage April 26, 2009

DC Current April 26, 2009

DC Power April 26, 2009

AC and DC Power Comparison

Inverter Efficiencies April 26, 2009

Acknowledgments UA Physics –Dr. Alex Cronin –Daniel Cormode –Vincent Lonji –Ryan Price UA Optics –Ray Kostuk –Brian Myer UA Atmospheric Science –Bill Conant AzRISE TEP –Bill Henry

Thank You!