Page 215 - Applied Photovoltaics

Figure 10.12. Schematic of the DOE residential program—prototype through
commercial systems (Pope, 1979).

This program was superseded by the ‘Solar 2000’ program, which sought to develop
economically-competitive PV systems and hence increase installed capacity in the
USA from less than 50 MW in 1991 to 200–1000 MW by 1995–2000 and 10,000–
50,000 MW by 2010–2030 (Rannels, 1992). It actually fell far short of its target since
by end of 2001 only 167.8 MW had been installed in the country (IEA-PVPS, 2004b).
Nevertheless, other US PV programs were successful. These included the Utility PV
Group (UPVG), which aimed to educate utility end users as to the value of PV in
their systems and to lower costs by aggregating utility purchases (Stone, 1993). It had
plans for 50 MW p of cost-effective and emerging PV technology in US utility grids in
the five years from 1993.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s PV:BONUS program included support
for PV used in roofing, windows, domestic and commercial buildings, and in kit
homes for off-grid sites (Solar Flare, 1993).

The PVUSA project aimed to demonstrate PV in utility settings. By 1991, nine
20 kW p emerging module technology systems were being tested, plus two 200 kW p
and one 400 kW p systems using more mature technologies (Candelario et al., 1991).
The average capacity factors recorded for fixed arrays were 21% (with a range of 10–
30%), and for two-axis tracking arrays 30% (Ibid.).
The Kerman substation described above was a PVUSA project. Others are described
below.

1. Carissa Plains—A 5.2 MW ac PV system was installed at Carissa Plains,
north of Los Angeles, USA, and connected to the Pacific Gas and Electric
(PG&E) grid. The system’s performance, in terms of capacity factor over

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