① Install solar photovoltaic power generation on residential roof
The United States announced the launch of the “President Clinton Million Roofs Photovoltaic Project” in 1997.
According to the US Electron Solar Company’s forecast in late October 2007, by 2011, the number of households using photovoltaic solar cells in the US will be five times that of 2006, reaching 67,492 households.
According to statistics and forecasts of the US Department of Energy (DOE), the US household photovoltaic investment is growing rapidly. The investment in 2006 was US$61.5 million, and in 2007 it reached US$185.2 million. It is expected to increase to US$406.6 million by the end of 2010.
On April 8, 2008, the State of California announced that in accordance with the agreement signed between the Sacramento Urban Public Community (SUD) and some families in Woodside, more than 1,400 solar-powered Solar Smart homes will be built in the Sacramento area. This contract is one of the largest contracts to date between American public communities and home builders. The Sacramento Urban Public Community (SMUD) will provide subsidies for solar energy and energy-efficient equipment for all households. There are 1,487 homes near Rancho Cordova, California, and all solar-powered homes will be built in 2012.
The State of Michigan announced on February 9, 2010 that it would use the new POWERHOUSE solar roof panels (Figure 3) commercially produced by Dow Chemical Company for rooftop solar power generation. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) will also invest $140 million in the construction of related production plants to produce innovative solar photovoltaic panels in the form of solar roof panels, which can be combined with standard asphalt roofing on the roof. Dow POWERHOUSE solar roof panels combine low-cost thin-film copper-steel gallium-selenium (CIGS) photovoltaic cells into a proprietary roof panel design, which is a multifunctional solar-powered roof product. Innovative product design reduces installation costs, because traditional roof panels and solar power panels must be installed by the roof installation contractor at the same time, while the new POWERHOUSE solar roof panel array facility can be installed without special skills or knowledge.
②Set up solar photovoltaic power generation on the top of buildings and workshops
The United States has implemented a large number of solar photovoltaic power generation facilities on the top of buildings and factories. As of the end of September 2008, the total power generation capacity of solar photovoltaic power generation facilities built on the top of buildings and factories (excluding university buildings) in the United States has reached about 80MW, and the scale of the facilities is as small as 30kW, up to 8MW, according to incomplete statistics, as many as 40. This has become one of the important measures to reduce CO2 emissions in the United States. According to estimates, an 80MW facility is equivalent to an annual power generation of 1.35X 105MW·h. It can also be equivalent to the electricity used by 400,000 households in a year, or equivalent to a year’s reduction. Discharge CO24.6X104t.
In early 2006, DuPont installed a 40kW solar panel set at its Chestnut Run research and office headquarters in Wilmington
A 901kW photovoltaic solar panel was installed on the top of the wine pouring plant of Fetzer Vineyards in California, USA in early January 2007 (Figure 4). The cost of the new solar panels is 10% lower than the conventional electricity cost of the utility. It can also reduce the peak power demand of the factory by 70%. The Fetzer solar system is funded by solar funds from MMA’s renewable energy company. As a clean energy project, the photovoltaic solar panel can generate electricity up to 1.1X106kW·h per year, which will supply about 80% of the energy demand of the filling plant, accounting for about 1/3 of the total electricity demand of Fetzer Vineyards.
The Alvarado Water Treatment Plant in San Diego, California, USA, set up a 1.135MW solar power generation facility in early March 2007. The solar panels of the photovoltaic facility can produce about 20% of the plant’s electricity, saving $40,000 in annual electricity consumption. The location of the solar power plant is part of the city’s multi-year solar development plan, which will eventually generate 5MW of solar power and become the largest urban solar system in California. Alvarado water treatment plant facilities are equipped with 6128 photovoltaic solar panels on top of 3 water storage tanks, with a total area of 4.33acre, and each panel is 4.5ftX3.5ft. The solar power system can generate 1602kWh per year.
The 30kW solar Gwangju system installed in the office building of Triangle Research Park by North Carolina State Triangle Products Company was completed on January 7, 2008. The solar photovoltaic system has 160 solar panels and is the largest company-level rooftop solar photovoltaic system in the state. The facility generates approximately 3.6X104kW·h of electricity each year, which is equivalent to reducing CO2 emissions by approximately 37t per year.
Major retailers Wal-Mart and SunPower announced at the end of January 2008 that they had completed a 390kW medium-sized solar power generation system project in the Sam large warehouse in Chino, California, USA. This warehouse is the first high-efficiency SunPower solar power generation system installed by Wal-Mart in 7 warehouses in California, totaling 4.6MW. Achieve energy saving, reduce energy costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These solar power systems are not the same, but on average can provide up to 30% of the electricity for these warehouses. According to estimates by Wal-Mart, the installation of these solar power generation systems will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8,000 to 10,000 tons per year. This medium-sized solar power project is a major step for Walmart to achieve its 100% renewable energy supply goal Sudden. On the top of Wal-Mart’s Chino warehouse , SunPower has set up proprietary SunPowerT10 solar roof tiles, which are inclined at an angle of 10° to increase solar energy capture. The efficiency of SunPower solar panels is 50% higher than that of conventional solar panels, especially when installed on a roof with a limited space, it can generate maximum power and save investment.
The American car manufacturer General Motors announced on July 7, 2008 that it will build the world’s largest rooftop solar power station in its largest plant in Europe . The company is located in Figueruelas, Zaragoza, northern Spain. The assembly plant is equipped with 18.3m2 solar panels. The project investment is 50 million euros (78.5 million US dollars), which can provide 1/4 of the power required for the plant during peak electricity consumption. The roof The solar power station uses UNI-SOLAR thin-film flexible solar panels from the Energy Conversion Facilities Company (ECD). The system has a power generation capacity of 12MW, which has been put into use before the end of 2008. The peak power generation capacity of the photovoltaic system is 12MW, which can generate 1.5X107kW·h of green electricity every year, which can provide electricity for about 4,500 households.
General Motors Corporation announced on August 26, 2008 the construction of a 1.2MW solar power generation facility on the roof of its transmission assembly plant in White Marsh, Maryland. The system consists of more than 8,700 solar panels, occupying about 3X105ft2 of roof space. This installation generates about 1.4X106kW·h of solar power every year, which can supply about 20% of the power used by the factory.
Anheuser Busch, one of the seven largest beer brewers in the United States, announced that by the end of 2009, it had adopted renewable energy to provide energy for beer brewing. The company has installed renewable energy technologies in its beer breweries in Houston, Texas and Fairfield, California, which were put into use at the end of 2009, enabling the company to use renewable energy for more than 15% of its beer brewing in the United States. Houston Beer Brewing will use nearby buried biogas as part of the alternative fuel, which is combined in the plant’s bio-energy recovery system (BERS), which can provide more than 70% of the fuel demand for beer brewing. Fairfield Brewery uses BERS technology to convert beer wastewater into fuel and provide electricity from solar panels installed in the plant.
Toyota and SunPower announced the completion of the largest single-roof solar photovoltaic power generation facility in North America on September 25, 2008. The 2.3MW SunPower system was put into use in October 2008 at Toyota’s California Components Center (NAPCC) in Ontario, California. The photovoltaic power generation facility can provide nearly 60% of the total electricity demand for the 76ft2 NAPCC. The system covers the NAPCC roof over 2.44X105ft2, including 10417 solar modules, equivalent to the size of 4 football fields.
The American Innovative Cold Storage Enterprise (ICE), SanDiego Gas and Electric Company (SDG & E) and SunPower announced on March 22, 2009 that the use of solar power for the newly built cold storage of ICE in SanDiego, California has achieved energy conservation. The solar power system is installed on the roof of this 134511ft2 cold storage building. The 1MW high-efficiency SunPower solar power system saves more than 75% of energy costs in the cold storage. Using this system is equivalent to reducing CO2 emissions by nearly 1.5X 106lb per year (1lb=0.453) 592kg).
BP Solar announced on April 23, 2009 the construction of a rooftop solar photovoltaic system for retailer Wal-Mart’s warehouse in California, USA. Initially, 10-20 rooftop solar photovoltaic systems will be built at the Wal-Mart Retail Center in California. It is expected that when the first batch of projects is completed in 18 months, the total facility can generate 10MW of solar power.
Porsche announced on February 17, 2010 that a 2MW photovoltaic system will be installed on the top floor of the central warehouse in Sachsenheim (Baden-Wuerttemberg) in the United States on an area of 4X104m2, and approximately 8,500 photovoltaic modules will be installed. The system can generate nearly 2X106kW·h per year, which is equivalent to the power consumption of about 500 households with 4 households. At the same time, it can reduce CO2 emissions by about 1780t per year.
ProLogis announced on March 4, 2010 that it will develop a second solar power project in Portland, Oregon, USA. The rooftop solar project totals 2.4MW, which will become the largest solar project system in the Pacific Northwest of the United States after completion. Prologis has signed a contract with Portland Generae Eletri (PGE). The project is set on 7 buildings with a total power generation capacity of 2, 4MW. This is the second rooftop solar power generation project of the two companies. The solar power generation capacity in cooperation with PGE reaches 3.5MW.