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Google's Solar Power Installation
Anthony Ravitz is talking about how Google installed 1.6MW of solar panels at their headquarters. He starts by talking about all of Google’s green initiatives.
The solar project, with financial incentives from PG&E, has a payback of 7.5 years. Solar works best at the same times that peak power is needed.
Google’s is the largest commercial installation of solar in the US. It uses 9212 Sharp 208 photovoltaic modules. The modules we put on standing metal seam roofs. On sloped roofs, they’re mounted flat on the southface, but on the north face, they’re kicked up. On flat roofs, they’re kicked up to face south. Shading part of the panel dramatically drops power production, not just proportional to the portion shaded. Google built carports to increase the roof capacity so they could put more panels in.
The modules are strung together in a series of fourteen modules and then fed to an inverter. They have outdoor rated cable, so conduit is not required. The inverters look like they’re mounted on the roofs outdoors. The installation is relatively straightforward.
Posted by windley on March 29, 2007 11:23 AM
Comment from Janet at March 30, 2007 12:36 PM
Phil,
Is this recent news? I saw something about it on the Google blog in October. Was this part recently installed?
Janet
Comment from Nintendo Wii at April 2, 2007 2:43 AM
Google is a wonderful company. I hope it continues to prosper. I not sure if this is recent news but its awesome! Great job Google.
Comment from David at June 18, 2007 10:37 AM
I worked on the project at Google and I have one comment to make on your article. The cable between the panels is outdoor rated, thus is not in conduit. However, the individual panels are wired together in strings, the strings are then brought into a combiner box, and then the wiring changes into a system requiring conduit. That is where the straightforward part ends. It takes skill and ability to layout and install all of the required raceways, disconnects, and circuit breakers for the TOTAL system. This installation was completed by SKILLED, TRAINED, UNION Electricians from IBEW LU 332 in Santa Clara County.
Comment from steve yang at December 3, 2007 4:34 AM
Actually I've been watching its performance and noticed some degradation. Based on mathematical analysis--see www.pvperformance.com.
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