If you drive past, or come visit the office, you may notice something a little different about the space. No, it’s not the team basking in lawn chairs trying to hold on to the last bit of summer weather. Instead, the roof got a bit of a face lift, and it’s the newest member of the team.
As the human element of Colman Engineering is hard at work within the building, our shiny new solar panels are equally dedicated to their job harnessing the energy of the sun. This symbiotic relationship within the built environment between the static structure of the office building and the dynamic technology of solar panels benefits not only Colman Engineering, but the community and planet as well.
At the most basic level, through the photovoltaic effect, energy from sunlight is converted to electricity. Solar cells within each solar panel are made primarily of silicon due to its conductive properties. Roughly 6”x 6”, solar cells are arranged in a grid like pattern with a back sheet and glass protecting the electrical contact plates.
Combining dozens of solar cells creates a panel and collecting multiple panels creates an array. Mounted to racks on the roof, the solar array is installed and tied to the building’s electrical system and then to the grid. A grid-tie system, such as the one at Colman Engineering, saves the customer money on their electric bill through net metering. The power generated by these systems is stored in the public utility grid and in turn the utility company credits the consumer for the amount of power generated. Net metering policies then allow the customer to draw power from the grid when the sun is not out.
Throughout their 25-year estimated lifespan, solar arrays not only provide reliability and energy efficiency, but a study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory showed that more than 75% of installed systems outperformed their warranty.
An often-misunderstood concept, energy efficiency of solar systems is based on an efficiency rating. Without context, efficiency ratings sound very low when customers are told that it ranges between 15-25%. In reality, this rating measures how much of the sun’s potential energy is converted to solar power. For example, the assumption that a 100-watt panel would produce 15-25 watts of electricity is incorrect. A 100-watt panel with a 25% efficiency rating will absorb 25% of the 500 watts of potential energy coming from the sun.
Colman’s system will reduce the office’s carbon footprint by up to 80% and offset our electricity needs by up to 89.5%. This is the equivalent of removing 43.5 vehicles driven for 1 year, 1.1 railroad cars of incinerated coal, or growing 4,837.7 tree seedlings for 10 years. While it is only one array, it has added to the growing community of people adding solar systems to their households and will have a measurable effect on the environment.
We are very grateful to Green Hill Solar for their hard work and excellent customer service throughout the project process. Check out their website here: https://www.greenhillsolar.org/
For more research information on solar power right check out: https://www.dsireusa.org/, https://www.nrel.gov, and https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/homeowner-s-guide-going-solar.
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