Design and fabrication of prototype systems for photovoltaic residences in the northeast. Final report
A photovoltaic (PV) system has been designed and integrated into a residential home suitable for the northeast region of the country. The house design and the PV system design which incorporates a unique PV shingle module developed by General Electric Company are described. The system has been installed and is currently being tested by MIT/Lincoln Laboratory on a prototype structure at the Northeast Residential Experiment Station in Concord, Massachusetts. The PV system is grid-connected and is designed to meet both space conditioning requirements through a heat pump and all conventional electrical load requirements for an all-electric residence. The PV system consists of two major subsystems, the solar array and the power conversion subsystem. A 6.7-kW-peak power rating (100 mW/cm/sup 2/, 25/sup 0/C Cell temperature) photovoltaic array has been designed for the house. The 73.3 m/sup 2/ of exposed solar array module area uses 375 direct-mounted shingle modules in a 25 series by 15 parallel network. The PV generated power is supplied to an Abacus 6-kW-output-rated dual-bridge inverter, which is controlled to track the solar-array maximum-power operating point. The inverter feeds the 240-VAC output power directly to the house loads or back to the utility when excess is generated. The DC power is isolated from the utility by a transformer. The system operation is automatic and the output is synchronized with the utility. The system automatically shuts down with loss of utility. The overall system is connected in parallel with the utility service to supply the residential load. The installation of the modules was completed as planned by a local contractor without any problems. No module damage occurred during installation or in shipping and the measured array output was slightly above predictions. The installation was considered a complete success.
- Research Organization:
- General Electric Co., Philadelphia, PA (USA). Advanced Energy Programs Dept.; Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Lexington, MA (United States). Lincoln Lab.
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-76ET20279
- OSTI ID:
- 5353971
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ET/20279-175; ON: DE82009179
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Portions of document are illegible
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Design of a photovoltaic system for a passive design northeast all-electric residence
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Related Subjects
HOUSES
PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER SUPPLIES
DESIGN
INSTALLATION
ENERGY AUDITS
INTERCONNECTED POWER SYSTEMS
INVERTERS
MAINTENANCE
MASSACHUSETTS
OPERATION
POWER CONDITIONING CIRCUITS
POWER RANGE 1-10 KW
SAFETY
SOLAR CELL ARRAYS
SPECIFICATIONS
SUPPORTS
TESTING
TRANSPORT
AUDITS
BUILDINGS
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ENERGY SYSTEMS
EQUIPMENT
FEDERAL REGION I
MECHANICAL STRUCTURES
NORTH AMERICA
POWER SUPPLIES
POWER SYSTEMS
RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
USA
140600* - Solar Energy- Photovoltaic Power Systems