It has always been my privilege be a citizen of the Planet Earth. I want to do everything I can to help to make this a better place for us to live. Use of renewable and eliminate the use of fossil fuel is my primary goal. Energy and Water are tied to our daily lives and strongly linked to each other. Energy produced by coal power plants, nuclear power reactors, biofuels etc. uses lots and lots of water (not to mention its well-known massive CO2 pollution release to the planet). Moreover, water discharged from coal or nuclear power plants not only creates thermal stress to our ecosystems, it contains arsenic, mercury, lead, and other toxic substances which severely contaminate our drinking water.

I am proud of being a Net Energy Producer.

Specifications

The Main House

• 12 Sharp 175W modules, total of 2.1 kW with yearly production of 3.036 kWh
• 24 Uni-solar 136W thin film, total of 3.64 kW with yearly production of 4.719 kWh
• 27 Uni-solar 31W thin film, total of 837W with yearly production of 1.210 kWh
• Three Xantrex GT 3.0 inverters.

The Barn

• 63 Sharp 175W modules, total of 11.025 kW with yearly production of 15,941 kWh
• Two Xantrex SW5548 inverters in the Barn for DC to AC conversion and battery backup.

The Pasture

• Two dual axis solar trackers, each mounted with 16 Sunpower 230W module and with 16 Enphase IQ7PD-84 Microinverters, total of 7.36 kW with calculated production of 17,833 kWh per year.
• The two poles are schedule 80, 10 inches in diameter steel pipes, weights approximately 1200 lbs each; 50 feet apart. The poles are 20 feet in length, installed 10 feet below ground, 10 feet above ground with added 3 feet extension welded at top, a total of 13 feet above ground. The 3 feet extension is schedule 40, 8 inches in diameter steel pipes.
• The foundation is 12.5 feet deep and 40 inches in diameter poured with high strength concrete. Both poles are filled with high strength concrete to give stability.
• The drive head for the Wattsun dual axis tracker AZ225 with factory installed manual control option weights 250 lbs each. Power consumption for each tracker is less than 10 Wh per day and will track to within a fraction of a degree of arc sunrise to sunset, then slue back to East to be ready for the next day.
• Ground wire #6, ground stakes 5/8", 8 feet down on earth.
• Monitoring System: Enphase IQ Envoy with Enlighten monitoring software.

The Battery Backup System

• Battery backup system consists of Eight Concorde PVX-2580L 258Ah@2h batteries. Batteries are arranged as 4S2P (4 series 2 parrel) configuration, which provides 48V @ 500ah = 24kWh. However lead acid useable capacity is much lower than lithium usually around 60%, so my usable is 14.4 kWh. But also: 12v is actually 12.8v nominal, so 48 v is actually 51.2v nominal. 51.2 v @ 500Ah = 25.6 kWh; then 60% usuable on 25.6 kWh would be 15.36 kWh. This 25.6 kWh \/ 15.36 kWh system provides sufficient backup for my home as we have never run out of electricity during power outage.
• The constant multiple days of extended PSPS (Power Safety Power Shutoff) prompts me to turn my entire property into whole property battery backup. Five Tesla Powerwall2 were installed with a intelligent transfer switch Tesla Gateway 2 . The Powerwall2 system 67.5kWh has usable capacity with integrated inverter and liquid cooling system; providing 25kW continuous power output with 35KW peak output.

Wiring Diagram

The Main House and the Barn PV and the battery backup system were installed in 2005. With the countless power outages, the construction of the new home was able to continue with the renewable energy stored in battery backup system

The 2 dual axis trackers PV system was installed and power-on in 2011. It is nicely tied into my existing Solar Generator

The Whole property backup wiring diagram using 5 Tesla Powerwall2s and Gateway2.

Output Constraints

There are several factors in the low energy production in Phase I of the PV project. The Phase II project is a result of "lessons learn" from the Phase I project, where it produces the maximum allowable energy given by the materials that were chosen.

• The 12x175W solar panels on the flat part of the main house were restricted by a height limitation. Hence, the panels have to be layed flat.

• The low efficiency thin films facing south on the main house was the only solar choice we had at that time since they did not yet have a mounting system for a metal roof.

• The 63x175W solar panels on the barn roof face West, which is not the ideal direction for maximum energy production.

• In Phase II, the two dual axis trackers, holding 32x230W solar panels on the pasture, are the ideal way to harvest maximum renewable energy. Not only do they track the sun in both directions, they use 32 enphase inverters which are spec'ed at 96% efficiency.

Power Generations

Phase II Tracker Installation Photos

The pround team:
Two 12.5 feet deep holes:
Electrical trenches to the Barn:
Rebar and set poles:
Mounting the Motors:
Adding the supporting membranes:
Mount Enphase Inverters and Solar Modules:
Hook up the electricals:
My Solar Trees: