29 July 2009

University gets solar power boost

Newly installed solar panels that automatically track the sun as it crosses the daytime sky and concentrates sunlight onto hundreds of electricity-producing solar cells, each smaller than a shirt button, is now producing electricity at the University of California at San Diego.

The 220-square-foot, 5.75-kilowatt concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) panel is on a movable platform atop a metal pole at UC San Diego’s East Campus Energy Complex. Concentrix Solar, a German CPV technology manufacturer installed the panels. The new CX-75 technology has an average efficiency of 27.2%, or nearly twice that of conventional photovoltaic technology. They also use the technology in a commercial power plant in Spain, and the company will use the UC San Diego project to demonstrate the technology’s potential to U.S. customers while donating the electricity generated to the university.

“UC San Diego is an ideal partner because it has years of experience in the field of photovoltaics and was one of the first American universities to install PV systems for their own use in a big way,” said Inka Heile, Concentrix Solar project leader. “In addition, the site of the demonstration system situated at UC San Diego’s East Campus Energy Complex is close to the international airport and very accessible for our customers.”

The new panels are a small part of a much larger 1 megawatt photovoltaic system previously installed on rooftops and parking garages at UC San Diego. The university plans to install a second megawatt of photovoltaic capacity and also is planning to install a 2.8-megawatt fuel cell that by 2010 will begin converting methane gas recovered from the city of San Diego’s Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant directly into electricity.

“UC San Diego is in the midst of an aggressive effort to add alternative energy as part of our Sustainability 2.0 initiative, and this new photovoltaic project fits right into the mix,” said Steve Relyea, vice chancellor for business affairs. “Our Sustainability 2.0 initiative includes developing the UC San Diego campus into a living laboratory for cutting-edge solutions to climate change.”

UC San Diego faculty and students will be able to access a record of all the electricity produced by the new panels for their research purposes.

The UC San Diego Jacobs School’s Center for Energy Research is collaborating with UC Davis on a two-year, $700,000 grant from the California Energy Commission to expand the development and use of solar energy in the state. The researchers are tracking the evolving landscape of solar technology development and use in California in order to help the state achieve an ambitious goal of installing 3,000 megawatts of solar energy capacity in California by 2017.

For related information, go to www.isa.org/manufacturing_automation.