News Article
Printed CIGS utility panels used in Ohio
Nanosolar thin film solar printing delivers affordable energy for America's military bases.
Nanosolar has announced the installation of 538 kWp of its CIGS utility panels at the Camp Perry Ohio National Guard Base in Port Clinton, Ohio.
Nanosolar partner Romanoff Electric oversaw engineering, procurement and construction of 2,750 Nanosolar Utility Panels as part of the project.
The panels were pre-assembled into cartridges by mounting systems vendor AP Alternatives at its fabrication facility in Ridgeville Corners, Ohio, and then delivered and inserted into pre-driven and laser-guided piers at the project site. AP Alternatives' pre-assembly enables a more quick and cost-effective installation with far less panel breakage than with traditional mounting systems.
"The Nanosolar Utility Panel delivers a low-cost, easy to install solar power alternative for America's military bases," said Jerry Heminger, VP of Alternative Energy at Romanoff Electric. "Nanosolar's utility-scale thin film panel design allows us to install equivalent power with fewer panels and less equipment, cabling and people than conventional thin film solar technologies."
Nanosolar also announced that it is on schedule to construct its 1 MWp ground-mount thin film solar installation at the Camp Roberts California National Guard Base near Paso Robles, California with engineering, procurement and construction partner Belectric.
This project is funded by the U.S. Department of Defence ESTCP Program in order to showcase a low-cost, secure renewable energy alternative to fossil-fired power generation. Groundbreaking is scheduled for early January 2012 and the construction of the system is scheduled to take less than three months.
"Solar power is an affordable, reliable and responsible source of energy for America's military," said Geoff Tate, CEO of Nanosolar. "Nanosolar is delivering a stable power source to Camp Perry and other military installations that is independent of supply shortages, grid interruptions, and price fluctuations."
Nanosolar Utility Panel
Nanosolar's innovative, roll-to-roll printing process and utility-scale panel design enables the Nanosolar Utility Panel to significantly reduce both manufacturing costs and balance of systems costs in multi-megawatt installations. In addition, it is the first solar panel to be certified to operate at up to 1500 system volts. These system design features allow for balance of systems cost savings of up to 30 percent over competing thin film solar panels in utility-scale power plants.
Nanosolar thin film solar cells are printed at the company's headquarters and manufacturing facility in San Jose, California. The Nanosolar Utility Panel can be assembled close to market demand in order to leverage local resources and minimise logistics costs.
