Off Grid Solar: A handbook for Photovoltaics with Lead-Acid or Lithium-Ion batteries

DEDICATION

––––––––

This book would not have happened without you, Jessica.

Thank you for all your support and encouragement.

Table of Contents

About the Author

More Resources

Disclaimer

Introduction

Why Solar?

How Off Grid Solar Works

Site Design

Start With Energy Efficiency

Load Calculation Table

Site Location

Array Design

Design for Your Load Pattern

Design for a DC or AC System?

Design for AC or DC coupled Solar PV?

What is a Microgrid?

Battery Selection

Lead-Acid Batteries

Lithium-Ion Batteries

Battery Management System (BMS)

Battery Type Considerations

Photovoltaic Module Selection

PV Fundamentals

Solar Module Specifications

The Effects of Module Shading

Strings of Modules

The Effects of Temperature

Charge Controller Selection

PWM or MPPT?

Matching to Battery Type

System Protection

Inverter Selection

Inverter Fundamentals

Pure Sine Wave vs. Modified Wave

Single Phase, Split Phase and Three-Phase

Bi-Directional Inverters

Inverter Efficiency

Passively-Cooled Versus Fan-Cooled

Balance of System Selection

Wire Selection

Overcurrent Protection Devices

Combiner Boxes and Disconnects

Grounding

Lightning Protection

PV Mounting Selection

Racking Types

Mounting the Modules

Hardware Considerations

Wire Management

Electrical Enclosure Selection

Ingress Protection

NEMA Enclosure Types

Low Cost Enclosures

Secondary Power Selection

Generator

Wind and Hydroelectric Power

Code Compliance

Electrical Code Compliance

Building Code Compliance

System Design

Generation Capacity vs. Storage Capacity

System Sizing

Line Diagrams

Installation Safety

Tools

Operations and Maintenance

Battery Maintenance

Inverter and Charge Controller Maintenance

Module and Racking Maintenance

Understanding Electricity

Power vs. Energy

Voltage and Volts

Current and Amperes

Resistance

Ohm’s Law

More Resources

Acknowledgements

Index

About the Author 

Joe O’Connor is a solar manufacturing entrepreneur as well as a consultant, speaker, and writer on solar energy. Joe has built off grid solar energy systems in the U.S., Haiti, Nepal, Portugal, Guatemala, and most recently in Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of the Congo. To learn more about his work in Congo, check out SolarCity, Tesla, and Virunga, Building Solar Micro Grids for the guardians of Africa’s oldest and most biodiverse national park.

Seeking to amplify his impact after over a decade of traveling to remote places to install solar, Joe decided to share his knowledge and experience of off grid solar energy systems through this book.

As founder of OCON Energy Consulting, Joe and his team provide consulting services for a range of clients in need of solar system design, energy storage systems, and product development. 

Joe currently works at Nuvation Energy, providing battery management technology and engineering services to organizations designing and building energy storage systems.

Joe has worked at lithium-ion battery manufacturer Farasis Energy, energy storage provider Mercedes-Benz Energy, and solar installer SolarCity. At SolarCity, Joe supported the Microgrid Team and the GivePower Foundation by designing solar photovoltaic and Tesla Powerwall systems. He also prototyped, designed, and patented a new solar racking system that enabled SolarCity to become one of the largest commercial installers in the U.S.

Prior to his work at SolarCity, Joe launched a cost-efficient solar racking product at solar manufacturing start-up, Sollega. Joe has also worked with Sustainable Energy Partners in San Francisco, completing dozens of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.

Joe earned his M.S. from NYU Polytechnic University in Manufacturing Engineering and was selected as a recipient of the Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurship. He earned his B.S. from Cal Poly University in Industrial Technology.

He first became passionate about renewable energy after volunteering with GRID Alternatives—the Habitat for Humanities of the solar industry—when he teamed up with other volunteers to install solar electric systems on homes of low-income families in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Joe believes that advancements in the renewable energy industry will help our global society break its dependency on oil, coal, and natural gas. He is on a mission to make renewables the dominant energy sources on our planet in order to combat climate change.

More Resources

At the website below there are more resources available to assist in the design of an off grid solar system. These resources are free for download:

System Designer template in MS Excel

Load calculator table

Derate Table

System Summary

Bill of Materials template in MS Excel

Solar insolation maps

Declination maps

Voltage drop calculator

GOGLA Photovoltaics for Productive Use Applications: A Catalogue of DC-Appliances.

Visit the following link for more information or to contact the author.

www.OffGridSolarBook.com

Disclaimer

All content in this book is provided for educational purposes and should be applied at your own risk. As with any Do-It-Yourself (DIY) project, unfamiliarity with tools and processes can be dangerous. All content herein should be considered theoretical advice only.

If you are at all uncomfortable or inexperienced working with the components and/or tools required for off grid solar systems (especially but not limited to electronics and mechanical equipment), please reconsider doing the job yourself. It is very possible on any DIY project to damage the equipment, void property insurance, create a hazardous condition, or harm or even kill yourself or others.

The author and this book are not to be held responsible for any injury due to the misuse or misunderstanding of any content related to this book.

By using this book, you agree to indemnify the author (The Company), its officers, directors, employees, agents, distributors, affiliates, subsidiaries and their related companies for any and all claims, damages, losses and causes of action arising out of your breach or alleged breach of this agreement.

The information in this book is distributed as is and appears without express or implied warranties of any kind, except those required by the relevant legislation. In particular the Company makes no warranty as to the accuracy, quality, completeness or applicability of the information provided.

You may not rely on any information and opinions expressed in it for any other purpose. Neither the Company, nor its officers, directors, employees, agents, distributors, affiliates, subsidiaries and their related companies are responsible or liable for any loss damage (including, but not limited to, actual, consequential, or punitive), liability, claim, or any other injury or cause related to or resulting from any information in this book or on the Company’s website.

––––––––

If we use our fuel to get our power, we are living on our capital and exhausting it rapidly. This method is barbarous and wantonly wasteful, and will have to be stopped in the interest of coming generations.

– Nikola Tesla, 1915

I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. I wish I had more years left!

– Thomas Edison, 1931

Introduction

Are you planning to build an off grid solar energy system?  Maybe you don’t feel quite ready and want support in understanding the technology and the process? This book is written so that you can decide the best equipment for your project, matching your particular needs within a realistic budget. After reading this book, you will have a firm understanding of how photovoltaic solar panels and batteries work together to provide DC or AC electricity in an off grid environment.

First, I will explain the basics of the solar components and the general science behind solar electric systems. Next, I will help you determine how much power and energy can be produced in a particular location and which combination of equipment will match your load at the lowest cost. Finally, I will explain the specifics of the installation process and conclude with a section on how to troubleshoot problems.

By the time you’ve finished reading, you will be capable of building your own off grid solar system, assuming you have the right tools as well as some construction and electrical skills and experience. This book will help you make better decisions about solar. You’ll understand what technology you truly need, rather than solely trusting others for recommendations. You’ll be better at comparing bids from installers because you will recognize which technology best suits the needs of your project. 

Whenever possible in this book, I have avoided recommending specific manufacturers. I choose to remain technologically agnostic, so you can determine the right specifications rather than specific brands in your decision-making process. It is up to you to decide what level of quality you need. For your system to last a long time, make sure the products you purchase have long warranties from reputable manufacturers.

This book is geared toward people who want an off grid electric energy system, one that is self-sufficient and does not require access to a shared grid. It is designed for people who lack a reliable utility or who wish to avoid one that relies on expensive and dirty fossil fuels. This book covers systems both large and small, and it will be useful whether you need to power a few lights and cell phone chargers at a low cost, or need to power every appliance in your home. There is a clear comparison between today’s tried-and-true lead-acid batteries and tomorrow’s lithium-ion batteries. This book will also be suitable for someone building a remote energy source for research or communications equipment.

There are many similarities between off grid and grid-tied solar energy systems; this book focuses only on the needs of a stand-alone energy system. People living in cities or suburbs connected to a reliable utility grid may find this book interesting as well, but its guidance may not apply to grid-tied systems, which often require different components and are generally less complex, as there is no need to store energy. There are already many great resources focusing on grid-tied PV systems, such as the NABCEP PV Installation Professional Resource Guide.

If your project can be grid-tied, it generally should be grid-tied, since feeding the grid is more efficient than storing it in batteries, and because someone will use the extra electricity somewhere on the grid. However, in some places such as in Germany and Hawaii, solar owners are not allowed to export onto the grid because there is a surplus of electricity on the grid during the hours of intense sunshine. This is a new issue and will become more common as solar becomes ubiquitous. However, in those areas where solar energy cannot be exported, homeowners and businesses are using lithium-ion batteries to store their solar energy for use at later times.

Off grid solar is the ideal form of self-reliance. With solar energy you don’t need to pay bills to a utility or buy an endless supply of fuel for your generator; you can harvest energy from the sky. By avoiding dirty fossil fuels, you also avoid contributing to climate change. The technology is here, so let’s get started and learn how to use it.

Why Solar?

To me, the most interesting fact about solar is that there is no cost for the fuel—unlike fossil fuels. This means that as the cost to manufacture solar equipment continues to decrease, solar will quickly become the cheapest energy source on the planet. In fact, it is already the cheapest form of energy in many regions of the world. Yet despite this, many people globally still live without access to energy.

"The 1.2 billion people living without access to the power grid spend about $27 billion annually on lighting and mobile-phone charging with kerosene, candles, battery torches or other fossil-fuel powered stopgap technologies.

About 1-in-3 off-grid households globally will use off-grid solar by 2020, according to our baseline forecast."

—Off-Grid Solar Market Trends Report 2016, Bloomberg New Energy Finance and Lighting Global.

In 2013, the World Bank stated that over 1.4 billion people have no access to electricity worldwide—almost all in developing countries. This includes about 550 million in Africa, and over 400 million in India. Access to energy can be expensive if one is not located near a utility grid. Dirty fuels such as diesel, kerosene, and charcoal have historically been the easiest energy sources, because until recently there weren’t good alternatives. Now that has changed, thanks to solar technology.

In many markets, the cost of electricity from diesel is $0.28 per kWh and the cost to use kerosene for lighting is equivalent to $3.00 per kWh. Solar energy is already significantly cheaper than current energy sources and, in some markets, is quickly replacing dirty fuels as an energy source.

What is so great about solar anyways?

It is by far the most abundant energy source on our planet. (see figure below)

It is cost effective at all scales —large and small.

The cost of fuel is free!

Earth’s Total Energy Resources

Cost of Solar

Historically solar has been very expensive. In the 1950s, when the solar photovoltaic cell was first invented by Bell Labs, it was so expensive that it wasn’t even considered a viable energy source unless you were designing a satellite for outer space. Fossil fuel was the most versatile and inexpensive source of energy. Hydroelectric dams were an inexpensive renewable option, but they were and still are extremely dependent on regional resources, and can damage surrounding natural ecosystems.

Cost of Solar PV Over Time

Fossil fuel costs have fluctuated radically over time and the average prices over the long-term have been increasing. For decades we have built substantial global infrastructure around fossil fuels. Our economy currently depends on it, and it is difficult to change this infrastructure until alternatives to fossil fuels become extremely cost effective, to recoup the sunk