Photovoltaic Panels on Cronin’s House
System Cost:
$7.50 / Watt
AC Power (kW / m2)
Power Production Time-series
Research on: Reliability, Efficiency, Power forecasting
Contact: Dr. Alex Cronin,
cronin@physics.arizona.edu
PV system added
November 2007
Electricity Bill ($)
100
80
60
40
20
0
Year: 2005
Total: $754
Year: 2006
Total: $686
2005
2006
Year: 2007
Total: $555
2007
Yr: 2008
Ttl: $159
2008
2009
Fuse
box
house
meter
TEP
Grid
PV
Panels
DC
AC
Inverter
Fuse
box
house
Net
meter
TEP
Grid
kWh Generated
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
1/1/2008
7/1/2008
Date
1/1/2009
TEP / UA Solar Test Yard Research
23 Inverters
Photovoltaic Modules at the
TEP SOLAR TEST YARD
Thin Si,
CIGS
Poly Si
A Field Laboratory
to study
Cost
Reliability
Efficiency
Storage
Transmission
Alex Cronin
UA Physics
Rated Power
2,640 Watts peak
Panel Temperature
Air
Temp
Sharp Panels & Aurora inverter
(rated 14 %)
AC Power / Light Power
0.12
0.10
0.08
0.06
Unisolar Panels & Fronius Inverter
(rated 7 %)
0.04
0.02
Occurance
0.00
10
20
30
40
50
Panel Temperature (C)
Partial Shade turns a system off.
4000
Sharp / Aurora (#1)
3500
AC Power (Watts)
3000
2500
Unisolar / Fronius (#4)
2000
1500
1000
Kyocera / Xantrex (#2)
Sanyo / Sunnyboy (#5)
500
0
6
7
8
9
10
11 12 13 14
Time of day (hour)
15
16
17
18
Findings:
Partial shade is a big problem
Temperature de-rating is significant
Panels rated 1 kW can produce 1700 kWh / yr
Next: National perspectives, new research
PV module production in MW
PV cell efficiency improvements
PV Costs exhibit a “learning curve”
Source: Department of Energy ERFC Workshop
Prism Solar Technologies inc.
May reduce cost to
$1 / Watt
Application in Solar Energy
• With a specially designed holographic optical element
(HOE), a large portion of the expensive silicon
photovoltaic (PV) cells in a solar panel can be
replaced
• With this Holographic Planar Concentrator™ (HPC)
technology, the solar modules produce more energy in
all conditions when compared to a standard module
with an equal area of silicon PV cells.
Application in Solar Energy
Other ways to Reduce Cost
•
•
•
•
Materials: CIGS, CdTe, organics,
Solar Grade Silicon
Other Concentrators
Solar thermal for electrical generation
Mountain Ave.
2nd st. Parking Garage
Solar Fountain
Outreach Tool:
Sunlight  work
Available from Physics
Lecture Demo Room
Larry Hoffman
Laboratory Coordinator
hoffman@physics.arizona.edu
Office: PAS 120
Phone: 520-621-6826
Campus Rec Center with Solar
Highland Ave
6th St