Rector Solar Central,
Tempe, AZ
2.9 kW
Residential Grid-tie Photovoltaic power plant
Background photos: Photos of the south
and west-facing photovoltaic arrays on our roof.
Below,
inset:
Aerial
view of our house, showing locations of the solar
electric panels connected to our local utility grid. We've been online
since Nov. 2005 - each year the total energy collected has exceeded
4100 kWh. Stats are posted further down the page.
Our
installation
consists of an 1837W roof-mounted photovoltaic string facing south, and
an 1120W
string facing west. Each PV string is connected to its own independent
MPPT input to the power converter, which is the interface
to the neighborhood electric grid under Salt River Project's EarthWise
renewable energy program. Both PV strings send several amperes at
up to 300 Vdc to the conditioner, which converts this to 240 Vac house
current,
returning up to 2.4 kW back to the electric grid (yes, the meter runs
backwards). The collected energy is directly subtracted from our
monthly usage at the retail cost (net metering).
Energy
Generated
By Year: 2006
(11/22/05-12/31/06)
4291
kWh
2007
4172 kWh
2008
4162 kWh
By month: 2007
Jun-Jul 400 kWh total 88 kWh
returned to
grid
Jul-Aug
351 61
Aug-Sep
352 77
Sep-Oct
342 105
Oct-Nov
304 107
Nov-Dec
200
52
Other Photos:
mouse-over for additional details
The morning we went on line 11/22/05:
Business End of the
solar plant, the grid intertie:
That peaceful feeling:
Back to home page.
