System Description

UPDATE!! THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN COMPLETED. Please see project summary for Peru Solar 2010 pictures and information.

2640 Off-Grid Solar Electric Power Generating Plant

Solar panel technology is designed to harness kinetic energy contained within the suns rays and convert it directly into usable electricity. As one would expect, the better the solar resource or quantity of sun received at a given location, the more viable and beneficial a solar electric system will be. Lucky for Peruvians, they are blessed with one of the best solar resources in the world.

Screen shot from 3TIER resource modeling

On average, Peru receives over 5kWhrs/m2/day of solar energy. This means that over 5000 watt-hours of energy will strike every un-shaded square meter of land in Peru every day. Although solar modules typically only convert about 11-13% of this energy into usable DC (direct current) electricity, one can quickly deduce that there exists great potential for the implementation of solar power within Peru.

Unfortunately, the flow of energy from a solar panel array (grouping of solar panels) is inherently inconsistent due to the lack of energy production during night time hours and the variablity of weather patterns. To account for this instability, a traditional off-grid solar electric system will include a battery bank for energy storage. During nighttime hours or periods of cloudy weather, this battery bank will provide uninterrupted power to the attached on site loads. During the day, the solar panel array will takeover support of these loads while simultaneously recharging the batteries.

NuSol has designed a solar electric system specifically for operation within the mountainess regions of Peru. This system consists of the following major components:

• (16) 165 watt solar panels - Donated by Alpha Energy
• (12) 108 amp-hour gel batteries
• (1) Schletter ground mount racking system
• (1) Outback FM80 charge controller
• (1) NEMA 3R aluminum battery enclosure
• (1) Outback FX inverter
• All required integration and installation components

Although final site selection and community needs will determine design specifics and equipment specification, the above system parameters and below computer renderings represent the base system design which NuSol will be using for the development of system costs and financial planning.

Based on average solar resource values, typical weather patterns and expected season variability, the above 2640 watt solar system will be capable of reliably supporting over 500 watts of clean continuous power 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To put this into perspective, 500 watts of continuous power is roughly equivalent to the energy consumed by the following hypothetical devices:

• (25) Laptop computers
• (45) 11 watt compact fluorescent light bulbs
• (5) Refrigerator freezers - 16 cubic foot

Although NuSol has made great strides towards the successfull construction and installation of this solar electric system, there is still much to be done. Please show your support through a donation to our cause.