Page 165 - Alternative Energy Systems in Building Design

ECONOMICS OF SOLAR POWER SYSTEMS 141

■ Long wire and cable runs
■ Poor, loose, or corroded wire connections
■ AC power transmission losses to the isolation transformers
■ Poor maintenance and dust and grime collection on the PV modules

Meteorologic data When the design is planned for floor-mounted solar power
systems, designers must investigate natural calamities, such as extreme wind gusts,
periodic or seasonal flooding, and snow precipitation. For meteorologic data,
contact the NASA Surface Meteorology and Solar Energy Data Set Web site at
www.eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/sse/.
To search for meteorologic information on this Web site, the inquirer must provide
the latitude and longitude for each geographic location. For example, when obtaining
data for Los Angeles, California, at latitude 34.09 and longitude 118.4, the statistical
data provided will include the following recorded information for each month of the
year for the past 10 years:

■ Average daily radiation on horizontal surface in kilowatts per square meter per day
■ Average temperature
■ Average wind speed in meters per second

For complete listings of latitude and longitude data, please refer to App. A. The fol-
lowing are a few examples for North American metropolitan areas:

Los Angeles, California 34.09 N/118.40 W
Toronto, Canada 43.67 N/−79.38 W
Palm Springs, California 33.7 N/116.52 W

San Diego, California 32.82 N/117.10 W
To obtain ground surface-site insolation measurements, refer to the Web site
http://eosweb.lac.nasa.gov/sse.
A certified, registered structural engineer must design all solar power installation
platforms and footings. On completion and integration of the preliminary design
parameters previously discussed, the design engineer must conduct a feasibility analy-
sis of the solar power cogeneration project. Some of the essential cost components of
a solar power system required for final analysis are

■ Solar PV module (dollars per dc watts)
■ Support structure hardware
■ Electrical devices such as inverters, isolation transformers, and lightning protection
devices and hardware such as electric conduits, cables, and grounding wire

Additional costs may include

■ Material transport and storage
■ Possible federal taxes and state sales taxes