Solar Star

Solar Star farm in Kern County, California.

More people are deciding to go solar every year. Going solar will reduce or eliminate your electric bill, earn a good return for your investment, increase your property value, protect against rising energy costs, and protect the environment by cutting your consumption of non-renewable energy.

Sometimes solar panels can be truly awe-inspiring. In addition to community solar there are many enormous solar fields around the world, including Solar Star, America’s largest solar farm and the world’s largest when it was created in 2015. Solar Star spans over 13 kilometres squared, about four times the size of central park. It produces 579 megawatts of energy, and powers over 250,000 homes, and you can see it from hundreds of miles above the ground!

Located in Kern and Los Angeles counties in California, it was built on “disturbed” land, meaning land that was already altered by people and not in its natural state. These panels get cleaned in a way that uses minimal water, and automatically follow the sun’s motion across the sky, which makes them more efficient. According to Solstice, these panels impact the environment as if they took 108,000 cars off the road every year! Additionally, the project was reported to have created 650 jobs over three years, and 40 maintenance jobs through its lifetime. The panels are also a source of pride and leadership for the US renewable sector.

Mega-scale solar farms are becoming more common around the world. Since 2015, solar plants in Mexico, China, and India are all projected to reach a range of 1,000-2,000 megawatts soon. The UAE even plans on building a plant with 5,000 watts by 2030. Back in the US, there are other large fields too, like the Desert Sunlight and Topaz farms producing 550 megawatts each, but they take up more space. Solar energy is becoming more affordable for the average American to place on their properties and commercial buildings every year too. More efficient benefits of distributed energy generation and more resistance to outages for small-scale projects should keep getting better, making more numerous small-scale projects across our communities It brings more affordable energy to people across the country and thus helps us life more cheaply.

Still, we will keep our eyes out for updates on the production of these mega farms in the US and around the world. The solar industry creates many jobs for people for farms of all sizes and contributes to maintaining a clean planet and reduction in carbon emissions. The solar industry is growing exponentially, with an almost 200% increase between 2016 and 2017, and 2,056 megawatts of community solar has been installed in the US through 2019! It brings better energy to people across the country, including in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, which Second Generation Energy serves.

 

Photovoltaic solar systems

More people are deciding to go solar every year. Going solar will reduce or eliminate your electric bill, earn a good return for your investment, increase your property value, protect against rising energy costs, and protect the environment by cutting your consumption of non-renewable energy.

Solar power converts energy from sunlight using either photovoltaics (PV), concentrated solar power (CSP), or a combination. PV systems have cells that convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic effect. They are the most widely used and well-known systems. PV systems are easy for residents to use on their properties. They can be mounted on the roof or as a ground mount. You can install a PV system that is either fixed in place or that uses a solar tracker to follow the sun across the sky.

Second Generation Energy installs and designs commercial and residential PV systems.  We believe that renewable energy combined with conservation measures will have the greatest impact on solving our energy problems. Looking to go solar? Give us a call, email, or stop by for a visit today!

Solar Energy Storage

Solar Energy Batteries

More people are deciding to go solar every year. Going solar will reduce or eliminate your electric bill, earn a good return for your investment, increase your property value, protect against rising energy costs, and protect the environment by cutting your consumption of non-renewable energy.

SGE can provide Battery Back-up and Hybrid Solar to help you store energy and maintain a constant flow of electricity even when the power goes out!

Technologies “store” energy when they capture electricity, keep it as another form of energy, and then release it as needed. Energy storage is a critical component to solar power use. Usually we use the most energy during the summer months in the afternoons and evenings, when solar energy generation begins to fall for the day. There are plenty of times when we use appliances and other electricity and thermal heat during cloudy days and at night when little energy is being generated. Therefore, we need backup power to provide us with a reliable energy source. Energy can be stored at different “energy” and “power” capacities, referring to the amount of energy that can be stored (in kilowatt-hours or megawatt-hours) at a given time, and the amount that can be released (in kilowatts or megawatts) at a given time. Sometimes we need long-term storage over the course of a few days during a major weather event, and sometimes short-term storage when passing clouds temporarily block sunlight.

There are three main advantages to storing solar energy. One is balancing electricity loads. Storage acts as an insurance policy for sunshine, maintaining balance between the usage and generation on both cloudy and sunny days, and at night and in the morning. Two, storage “firms” solar generation, meaning quick changes will not greatly affect the output of the solar plant, ensuring the output power supply is dependable and steady. Three, storage provides resilience to the entire electrical system in the face of a major disruption to regular electricity, keeping critical facilities in operation.

Storage of solar energy is utilized at small scales for individual homes and increasingly at bigger scales. The Solar Technologies Office within the federal Department of Energy has taken on a Grid Modernization Initiative to better integrate solar energy into the nation’s U.S. electric grid. Together we can adapt our power usage to solar energy and reduce our electric bill, provide a steady flow of energy, and contribute to cutting non-renewable energy.

Contact us today to get a free battery quote and learn more about the connected solutions program!