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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Installation of a modular building block photovoltaic concentrator array field

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5452531

A building block array field nominally rated at 25 kW has been installed in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The building block is a single source electrical circuit of six center pedestal two-axis tracking arrays connected in parallel and having a nominal operating voltage of 420 volts DC. Each array contains 60 point-focusing Fresnel lens photovoltaic concentrator modules connected in series for a nominal power output of 4.2 kW per array. The structural design uses a center pedestal two-axis cantilevered support tube with a closed loop sun sensor electronic control system. A master control provides manual override of the array field. The installation was accomplished without difficulty and demonstrated the ease of turnkey building block installation. The costs of 1 MW size fields is estimated to be $6.99 per watt installed based on the building block installation.

Research Organization:
Intersol Power Corp., Lakewood, CO (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-76DP00789
OSTI ID:
5452531
Report Number(s):
SAND-84-7022; ON: DE85016032
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English