California Town Becomes “Most Solar Town In America” With 85% Solar

Nipton, a tiny Californian town in the blaring sun of the Mojave just went solar, and is likely to soon become a tourist attraction as “the most solar town in America.” The townsfolk, all thirty eight of them, just installed their own citywide supply of clean abundant solar power.

Three year old  Skyline has already snagged a $3 million developmental contract with the U.S. Department of Energy, and found $24 million in its first round of interested investors. It was among the first beneficiaries of the accelerated patent approvals by the Obama administration Department of Energy earlier this month, under the Greentech Pilot Program.

Nipton’s brand new solar installation has been engineered to produce 85% of Nipton’s electricity needs now, and if the town grows larger, with all that tourism it can now expect, it will be easy to add more. Installers will be able to build power plants more quickly using Skyline’s pre-engineered systems because the upgradeable, pre-engineered solar energy systems are modular and scalable.

This makes them faster to install, and once installed, the reflective troughs, and the tracking system, and a central passive cooling system all help the solar generate ten times the energy per unit of silicon, which also means wasting less material. Skyline squeezes every last electron out of their systems with a combination of efficiency measures.

HOW IT WORKS

Focus
Their HGS arrays comprise conventional monocrystalline-silicon panels, but these are mounted on the edge of a W-shaped configuration called a reflective rack. The two troughs that make up the rack counterbalance each other, capturing and focusing sunlight – reflecting it into the panels.

Cooling, passive
The panels are positioned so heat can escape easily, and the system is passively cooled by the air flowing through it. That leads to a higher conversion efficiency for the system, because when solar panels get too hot, their efficiencies drop.

Economical tracking
Because the system is made of reflective aluminum, rather than steel and mirrors, its light weight means it can be cost effectively mounted on a tracker, which follows the sun and exposes the panels to more sunlight throughout the day.

Pay as you go
Because the systems are small and modular, they can be combined to scale up to various-sized projects.

The company’s first demonstration project in San Jose was made up of twenty four 18-by-6-foot systems. A 1-MW system would take 500 to 600 of these units.

www.solarfeeds.com/getsolar

How effective is residential solar power?

The effectiveness of a solar power system for powering your home (or part of your home) depends upon a number of factors. For example:

• Electric or gas? In general, any appliance that uses electricity to power a heat element (for instance, an electric stove, an electric clothes dryer, or an electric water heater) is not very compatible with solar power.

To get the most from a solar panel system, the first thing you should do is switch out energy-inefficient electric appliances with more efficient gas or propane appliances.

Replace water heaters with tankless, gas-powered water heaters; replace electric range tops with gas ranges; and replace electric clothes dryer with a gas-powered clothes dryer.

• How well does your home regulate its temperature? Probably the largest category of energy usage in a home is heating and cooling. Air conditioners use an inconceivably huge amount of power, and central heat falls not far behind.

If you haven’t weatherized your home yet, take advantage of the current tax credits offered as part of the Recovery Act and make your home as energy efficient as possible. The more energy efficient your home, the more cost-effective solar power will be.

• What is the south side of your roof like? Solar panels are most effective at catching sunlight when they are located on a south-facing roof.

If you have a neighboring building that blocks sunlight to the south side of your roof, you may want to think twice before you make a large investment into a solar panel array.

If you have trees shading that side of your roof, you may want to cut them down or at least trim them before installing solar panels.

• Where do you live? Even if the south side of your roof is completely clear and free, there’s a big difference between the amount of sunlight a south-facing roof receives in San Diego, CA, compared to Nome, AK. You should check NASA’s helpful Surface Meteorology and Solar Energy website to see if your particular area receives enough annual sunlight to make solar power a viable option.

These are just a few of the many factors that determine the effectiveness of solar power. Remember, solar power requires a significant financial investment, so be sure to do your homework carefully to decide if solar power is the best alternative energy option for you.

About the Author

Shannon Bell writes for residentialsolarpanels.org a non commercial blog focused on her Photovoltaic experiences to help people understand how and why they should save energy starting investing in solar power. She writes on <a href=” http://www.residentialsolarpanels.org/ “>residential solar energy</a> to help people learn how to start save energy from the scratch and then apply those experience to the next level.