What would you do?

I've inherited 4 Soitec Plug and Sun tracker modules.
http://www.soitec.com/en/products-and-services/solar-cpv/plug-and-sun/
They were designed for remote power applications. As the company is French, and they designed for European standards, the modules produce ~900 volts open and about 790 volts max load. The amperage is about 3.8 amps. My guess is that the voltage and amperage selections were selected for smaller wire dimensions, lower current loss over the distances they were planning to use.
I want to use them in a ranching remote operation. These will not be grid tied. I'm having a problem coming up with a solution. The closest thing I can find is the Schneider Electric 600-80 charge controllers. They are limited to 600V due to US standards. I've looked into trying to acquire a buck converter that would handle that voltage. The output side of the buck converter should just be less than 550 volts. I am also looking into European solutions and running the system at 220V 50 hz on the load side. I would order European pumps and motors to build my project. I'm also investigating 3 phase 208 volt systems. Any thoughts on how I can put these systems to use?
The cost can't be too expensive because at a certain point, I'm not going to use only the trackers and put an Ironridge pipe system on it with off the shelf 300 watt panels. I should be able to put 9 to 12 panels per tracker. I would prefer the Soitek modules as they produce a lot of power in a small space. The Soitec modules I have are about 40% efficient as opposed to ~20% for traditional PV.
Regards,
Michael
http://www.soitec.com/en/products-and-services/solar-cpv/plug-and-sun/
They were designed for remote power applications. As the company is French, and they designed for European standards, the modules produce ~900 volts open and about 790 volts max load. The amperage is about 3.8 amps. My guess is that the voltage and amperage selections were selected for smaller wire dimensions, lower current loss over the distances they were planning to use.
I want to use them in a ranching remote operation. These will not be grid tied. I'm having a problem coming up with a solution. The closest thing I can find is the Schneider Electric 600-80 charge controllers. They are limited to 600V due to US standards. I've looked into trying to acquire a buck converter that would handle that voltage. The output side of the buck converter should just be less than 550 volts. I am also looking into European solutions and running the system at 220V 50 hz on the load side. I would order European pumps and motors to build my project. I'm also investigating 3 phase 208 volt systems. Any thoughts on how I can put these systems to use?
The cost can't be too expensive because at a certain point, I'm not going to use only the trackers and put an Ironridge pipe system on it with off the shelf 300 watt panels. I should be able to put 9 to 12 panels per tracker. I would prefer the Soitek modules as they produce a lot of power in a small space. The Soitec modules I have are about 40% efficient as opposed to ~20% for traditional PV.
Regards,
Michael
Comments
If it is a commercial rather than residential installation, then up to 1000V DC is allowed and there are large inverters that accept voltages in your range.
I guess I don't understand, is it made of "undrillium" or "unsawium" I would guess there's no warranty...
You ask "What would you do" I'd have at it, solar electric is pretty basic stuff even for concentrating solar panels. All the photos appear to have 10 panels on the Plug&Sun module, There have to be wire connecting them.
If you intend to invest in a charge controller and they are highly efficient (@30%) I'm not sure why you would intend to replace the panels, unless they have a very short life, I understand there often is with concentrating panels.
- Assorted other systems, pieces and to many panels in the closet to not do more projects.
I suppose you could use two isolated charge controllers (the Schneider may be isolated ?) or a couple of isolated PV inverters maybe in series, but I don't think you may have much luck getting anything around 550 VDC out unless you build your own or maybe find some esoteric unit of some sort. Even if you could use two converters in series, you may have trouble getting them to track properly unless they have custom input voltage settings.
If I had inherited these, I would try to sell them and buy something useful. I am very skeptical about this 40% efficiency though. If they ARE some kind of concentrating solar, I would definitely sell them and get more useful PV.
SO reading more here, it does appear they are concentrating PV. I think I have seen these before many years ago at a solar show. Yeah, I'd dump them as concentrating modules are more than likely very short lived because of how hot they get. Also, keeping the tracking system working properly may be a problem unless they are very good.
What were these originally used for to be 900 Voc ?
One of the problems (complications, costs) of concentrating solar is that you MUST use at least a single axis tracker or a two axis tracker depending on the exact design. Without that the concentrated beam of sunlight would miss the PV chip.
More maintenance and more to go wrong.
The efficiency per area of active PV material may be higher because of the intensity of the light and the cell chemistry used, but the efficiency in terms of the power output per overall panel area is AFAIK not any better than flat cells.
PS: You cannot use a simple buck converter for this purpose. You would need a converter that maintained a fixed ratio between input and output voltage rather than a fixed output voltage, otherwise the MPPT algorithm in the charger would not be able to actually change the voltage and current conditions at the panels.
inetdog, What your wrote here confirms what I thought. Thanks for commenting.
Yes...
...but there are 10 of those sealed modules or I'm looking at the photos funny. They must be connected.
I would seriously doubt that they can, or would want to try to, seal the 8 x 12 foot complete assembly.
Might call the company and ask what they recommend for an off grid installation, likely they will have a ready answer. For your application you wouldn't need to worry about code...
- Assorted other systems, pieces and to many panels in the closet to not do more projects.
So if you were an engineer planning on producing these concentrating solar arrays, that you knew must be sealed and likely gas infused, would you build one size module that you could insure was sealed, like perhaps these;
After building these units you could assemble them into as large an array as you like. (Wires would be connected from unit to unit within the array, in the frame work you have pictured)
Then combined them into the size array you wanted like those you have posted.
I suspect each module is less that the 900 volts and run in one string. If you had more than 2 strings, much as with multiple strings in a standard system, you would want to have a fuse or breaker.
So you appear to have seen these, if the wires from each module don't go into a breaker box and rather get connected from one unit to another, then the base voltage of each unit is less. When solar panels are connected in strings, the voltage adds and the amperage remains constant (provided each has the same amperage to begin with)
- Assorted other systems, pieces and to many panels in the closet to not do more projects.
Another picture of a module I found. I do suspect that they are not only sealed, but filled with an inert gas, much as double and triple paneled windows.
- Assorted other systems, pieces and to many panels in the closet to not do more projects.
http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/
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the wheel just seem to me as temporary.
http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/
E-mail [email protected]