Page 19 - North American Clean Energy November/December 2018 Issue

for other geographic units, such as counties, states, congressional districts, and zip codes.
Users access the information by choosing a particular media market from a drop-down menu covering every state in the U.S. The tool then displays electricity generated for that market – in megawatt hours - by both wind and solar sources. In addition to megawatt hours, the tool offers context by providing several other metrics, such as the estimated percent of average homes in each media market those megawatt-hours could power. It also offers wind and a solar power indexes, each a number from zero to
ten, that reflects how well-suited the current weather conditions are for solar and wind generation. Finally, the tool describes the percentage of the daily electricity the average homeowner would save with a typical rooftop solar installation (based on average local residential prices for grid electricity).
“Our goal is to provide an easy-to-understand snapshot
of how much the weather is already contributing to meeting local electricity needs,” said Dr. Eric Larson, a senior scientist with Climate Central and a senior research faculty member at Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. Dr. Larson helped build the new tool.
By enabling meteorologists to routinely inform their viewers about local generation of renewable electricity, the tool increases viewers’ awareness that low-carbon energy sources are already practical and increasingly widespread. Some 60% of Americans regard TV weathercasters as trusted sources of information about climate change; the tool lets meteorologists go beyond talking about climate impacts to address clean-energy solutions—ones powered by the weather itself. Meteorologists’ audiences are big and diverse, which gives them an ideal platform to illustrate the power of clean energy around the country.
Simon Engler is a researcher and writer at Climate Central, an independent organization of leading scientists and journalists researching and reporting the facts about our changing climate, and its impact on the public. Explore the wind and solar tool at http://medialibrary.climatecentral.org/wind-solar-tool/.
C|limate Central | www.climatecentral.org
Customer-centric solar mounting solutions
Esdec, a European solar rooftop mounting solutions provider, is entering the U.S. market with the FlatFix system, a lightweight, clickable solar mounting system for flat roofs. Featuring a 20-year warranty and UL certification, FlatFix’s design enables rapid assembly, allowing commercial installers to significantly reduce installation times. FlatFix’s racking components, including bonding straps, are assembled by snapping into a locked position without the need for tools. The rails click together easily
and quickly to form an interconnected, solid structure. Complete module installation requires just one tool and minimal parts, while power optimizers can be attached via snap-on clips in a matter of seconds. Using self-levelling baseplates, FlatFix is available with ballasted and hybrid attachment options. The flexible system can be oriented in a traditional south-facing direction or in a dual-tilt orientation. FlatFix’s materials and design compensate for thermal effects, reducing potential heat-induced degradation of the PV modules and protecting the integrity of the roof. Esdec is also introducing its ClickFit product to the U.S. market. A lightweight, fully adjustable rail-based racking system, ClickFit can be used on various types of pitched residential and commercial roofs. FlatFix and ClickFit are both UL-certified Class A fire-rated, having achieved fire mitigation for Type 1 and 2 PV modules. Esdec | www.usa.esdec.com
Monitoring platform for PV plants and self-consumption systems Ingeteam has developed a new monitoring platform directed at all sizes of solar PV plants,
as well as PV self-consumption systems. The INGECON SUN Monitor platform makes it possible to monitor domestic and industrial systems alike, with or without batteries. The INGECON SUN Monitor application presents the real-time data for generation, consumption, and energy storage if applicable. Users can view this information on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. Furthermore, the INGECON SUN Monitor application gives details of all the energy flows in each time slot, so users have real-time information on which electricity supply is being used to power their homes, the self-consumption ratio achieved, and the final use of the solar energy, which can either be direct consumption, battery storage for subsequent consumption, or delivery to the public grid where permitted. The application has also been designed to monitor large-scale PV plants.
In this case, the tool proves useful for providing information on all the generation data, both in real time and also for daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly figures and to view the gain obtained with this energy production. Likewise, the application provides remote information on the status of any possible alarm present at the plant, so the user can monitor this situation. Moreover, all this information is compiled in a report that is emailed to the user on a daily basis.
Ingeteam | www.ingeteam.com
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