505KpW Solar Tracking System Installed in New Jersey

[skids]

Johnson Consumer Companies facility this week announced its new solar power system, consisting of ground-mounted panels that move during the day to follow the sun across the sky. The 505 kW solar tracking system is the largest and highest-output ground-mounted solar system east of the Mississippi, according to developers.

Covering just under three acres, the PowerLight PowerTracker sun tracking system maximizes the sun's available energy by capturing 20 percent more daylight than fixed arrays, as the tracker follows the sun from early morning to late afternoon. The photovoltaic modules convert sunlight directly into electricity for use by the Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies facility. The system was furnished by PowerLight Corporation, a manufacturer of commercial-scale solar electric products.

http://renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=38361

There ya go NNadir. Should be close enough for you to drive down there and give them a piece of your mind.

[phantom power]

1. At 500 kilowatts, you're just proving his point for him.

How many 500 kilowatt facilities does it take to supply New Jersey's power needs, and how much will all of them cost?

[mongo]

2. 505 KW is tiny for a power producing facility

where power is usually given in megawatts.

The solar answer is not to create central solar power stations, it is to create your own power from your personal system and then live within your means.

But of course, there is no money in that for the utility companies.

[skids]

4. It's a private facility.

Not even sure if it's on-grid.

[seriousstan]

3. In 1997, U.S. residents consumed an average of 12,133 kilowatt-hours each

In 1997, U.S. residents consumed an average of 12,133 kilowatt-hours of electricity EACH.

[NNadir]

5. Not worth the trip. Hype, press, and very little real result.

Not that I expect you to get it, but the system - owned by a rich corporation looking for PR is going to save 7000 tons of CO2 over the next 30 years.

In the continuing solar fraud, they always speak about what they're going to do in 30 years, but I'll bet this tiny little thing, also rated in fraud "peak" watts, not in physicist watts, will be abandoned well before 30 years passed, when a part wears out, a gear breaks, a motor shorts out, and they can't find the part. Then it will be dismantled, although there will, sadly, be no breathless press release announcing its removal.

Maybe it will end up like the baby pictured in this link, which was once the largest solar plant in the world:

http://ludb.clui.org/ex/i/CA4965/

Notice the rust. This solar plant didn't run 30 years. It ran 11 years, and they dug up the landscape to remove it. I'll bet that the heavy equipment digging those big holes - putting it in and then pulling it out - burned quite a bit of diesel fuel - not biodiesel I'd guess. I'll bet it's even more impressive if you consider that this is a remote site.

What is really telling about this New Jersey Johnson and Johnson thing is that a 505 kilo"watt" facility merits a press release as the "largest of East of the Mississippi." Pathetic isn't it? There are small companies that have back up generators larger than that. Imagine that, decades and decades and decades of talk and then some talk and then some more talk about the solar wonderland, and what do we have to show for it? The ability to eliminate 233 tons of carbon dioxide per year!

That won't even cover the cow farts in New Jersey, and we're not particularly well known as a dairy state.

But look, 233 tons is 233 tons. If Johnson and Johnson has money to burn on this, it's better for the environment for some of the other PR they might do, assuming that too many people don't drive up to Skillman to chant at the Temple of the Sun God while drinking of the Sunlight sacrament.

The Johnson and Johnson Titusville facility is a short bike ride from here by the way. If I were credulous - and I'm not - I could see it any time I want. I can assure you that this ride, a couple of kilometers down wooded roads, would not involve seeing any other PV systems here.

I'm certainly not going to waste gas riding up to Skillman to marvel at the new one. Since it's practical effect on global climate change is already tiny, we really don't want to put it in the area of negative effect on carbon dioxide output by me burning 5 gallons of gas to go see it. Let's just pretend I saw it and let's pretend that I was duly impressed.

[phantom power]

6. About the "tracking" system...

For all the extra hardware, cost, maintenance, etc, that a full tracking system involves, I question whether it's worth it for an underwhelming 20% additional energy.

[skids]

7. Of course it is worth it.

The hardware is not very expensive.

Hell I made a heliostat out of a broken floppy drive once.

[Massacure]

8. I got a couple floppy drives lying around.

Gimme details. :evilgrin:

[skids]

9. Well, it's not quite complete...

...it was just a hack. Been meaning to get back to it... got an o-scope now to fish for a low-hz signal somewhere on the board to provide the step pulse. Otherwise I'll have to rig up a logic cascade with a hefty RC value.

http://abrij.org/~bri/hw/sunflop.html

[NNadir]

10. Well let's hope they have some floppy drives over at J&J, and of course

some innovative people in the maintenance department who like to hack and search around for a low-hz signal with their oscilloscopes.

I'm sure that J&J has some old computer fans around that they can use 2,000 of these to blow the snow off the panels in winter. Maybe they can hack a snow detector to turn the fans on and off.

Somehow I don't think they're going to hack too much on their heliostats when they fail. They'll just throw them away, probably the whole unit. Afterall, it may get unsightly, especially when the weeds grow under it. They'll be no press release, and no congressman will show up to applaud discarding the device device, which, at the peak of day, when the sun is shining, when there's no snow cover, can produce as much power as twelve 1994 Geo Metros, maxed out at 55 horsepower each.

I wonder by the way, if I line up 12 Geo Metros in my driveway if I can get a Repuke congressman like Mike Ferguson come and sing my praises. It depends, I guess, on my "donations."

[skids]

11. Yes, I'm sure.

I'm so sure that a value added reseller that makes it's business in integrating heliostats to solar power is going to make a crappy product and not cover it under warranty.

Which, by the way, quite likely take care of the snow problem, too.

PowerLight's solar tracking system features an integral tubular, corrosion resistant frame design that provides high strength while reducing required steel. In addition, a fully engineered mechanical mounting system securely fastens the solar electric panels to the tracking system.

PowerTracker operates as a grid-connected or stand-alone solar electric system, and comes with a 20-year limited warranty on energy output.

[Dogmudgeon]

12. I (heart) Trash Hacking

I just wish I had enough space to do it in. But first things first, and the computer wins out.

That website, by the way, also links to plans for an aluminum can low-tech fuel cell.

--p!

[skids]

13. Yeah, it's an interesting experiment.

...but of course without a way to clean off the oxide it faces the same problems a lot of attempts at metal-air cells do.