Marking the fifth Energy Raiser event of 2010 and the second system designed and installed by Kevin Allemann and Jeffrey Owens of Show Me Solar, plans turn now to next year calendar of events.  If you are a property owner interested in supporting Show Me Solar’s mission to provide access to educational and training opportunities in solar energy technologies and would like to consider turning your solar project into an Energy Raiser event please contact Jeffrey Owens, Executive Director of Show Me Solar at jowens@showmesolar.org.

For further details on the project continue on to read the original blog post covering the Energy Raiser event that took place Saturday, October 16th.  The system was also shown at an open house event hosted by Terra Bella farm on Halloween (for more details on Terra Bella and contact information and a list of events at the farm see the bottom paragraph of this post).

Saturday, October 16th, Auxvasse, Missouri – Last Saturday witnessed Show Me Solar’s latest Solar Energy Raiser event at Terra Bella farm near Auxasse, Missouri.  Kevin Allemann, director of Show Me Solar and lead installer for the project had prepped the roof of the building by installing Iron Ridge rack mount rails on boot flanged stand-offs.  The building is an historic carriage house circa 1900-1910 and had just been relocated to set it back according to code from the nearby county highway.  The composition roof was removed and replaced by a cedar shake roof.  The scaffolding used by the roofer came in handy to mount three Canadian Solar 180W crystallized silicon modules on the roof.  A small group of seven worked diligently and by the end of the day had all three modules mounted and the wires terminated in a combiner box inside the roof.  A separate crew under the lead of carpenter and handyman extraordinaire, Rob Nix, came close to completing the battery box designed to hold eight 6 Volt, flooded lead acid batteries that will serve as storage for this small off-grid solar array.  The energy demand of the farm hands who will be using the building is light and in keeping with the sustainability mission of the farm, the system was designed to match the electricity requirements as closely as possible in order to keep the overall carbon footprint of the installation as small as possible.  Show Me Solar plans to monitor the performance of the system over the upcoming year and if necessary, adjustments will be made according to any changes in the energy usage profile of the building.  Plenty of space remains on the south facing portion of the roof for expansion of the array.

  This marks the fifth solar Energy Raiser  project for Show Me Solar so far since initiating the program earlier this year.  The projects have ranged from documenting a system as it was installed by a local solar company (see Show Me Solar Member Walks the Talk) to last weekend’s Energy Raiser in which case the entire project from site evaluation to commissioning of the system was completely handled by members of Show Me Solar.  Similar to Habitat for Humanity projects or old fashion Amish barn raisers, Show Me Solar Energy Raisers are a great way for our members to pool resources and share experience installing solar systems first hand not to mention helping a fellow member go solar all at the same time.  Show Me Solar plans to document the performance of the Energy Raiser systems and include them on the fall solar tours in upcoming years whenever possible.  Great training opportunities for those seeking entry into the field of solar energy, Energy Raisers are often coupled with educational workshops.  In fact, for the upcoming year, Show Me Solar hopes to engage experienced solar instructors more and more as we continue to provide solar education workshops in conjunction with Energy Raiser projects. 

For more information on Show Me Solar and our Energy Raiser events please visit the Show Me Solar website page – www.ShowMeSolar.org/energyraiser.htm 

For more information on our solar training partners please visit www.ShowMeSolar.org/training.htm

About Terra Bella Farm:

Located about twenty minutes from Columbia, Missouri and just under a hundred miles from St. Louis, Terra Bella Farm is 160 acres of mixed pasture, creek, and woods, with 12 acres of produce, herbs, and flowers. We strive to provide high quality food to fuel our local communities, our hard working apprentices, our extended families, and ourselves. We operate a thriving Communited Supported Agriculture program, and sell directly at area Farmers’ Markets, natural food stores, and restaurants. Community outreach such as leading educational farm tours, donating seedlings to community gardens, and finding homes for our surplus produce at local food pantries is vital to our long-term farming goals and our commitment to being a socially-responsible business.

About Show Me Solar:

Grass roots organized in 2007, Show Me Solar is a non-profit public benefit organization incorporated and based in the state of Missouri. We are board operated and member supported. Our mission is to educate the general public about the benefits of solar living and to advocate for the increased use of solar energy in the United States. To that end we host free and low cost presentations, workshops, classes, and seminars and participate in fairs, festivals and events related to renewable energy throughout the nation and it’s territories. Show Me Solar organizes installations of solar systems for demonstration and training purposes – events referred to as Energy Raisers. Show Me Solar also partners with the American Solar Energy Society to sponsor annual tours of solar systems as part of the ASES national solar tour event.

Learn about the latest developments in the solar energy industry, find the information you need to go solar and make the contacts you need to be part of the solar energy revolution. Attend a meeting or workshop online or in person, join our email list, become a member and help support our mission through donations and by volunteering your time at an upcoming event. We provide for-profit entities with access to our membership through sponsorship channels and non-profits with overlapping missions are also welcome to contact us to establish partnerships.

www.ShowMeSolar.org

The system to be installed on Saturday, October 16th will power lights, fans and few outlets for charging appliances in an historic 100 year old carriage house (photo above).  Plans are to keep the carbon footprint small by matching the system size as close as possible to the actual power requirements of the farm hands who will be using the building to prep and store produce.  Although small (rated 540 Watts), the system will be complete from 3 solar modules mounted on the roof to a charge controlled battery bank outfitted in a special storage closet inside the barn.  Attendees will benefit from the knowledge and experience of Kevin Allemann, director of Show Me Solar and lead installer for this project. 

Registration is limited to 10, first come first serve.  Current membership in Show Me Solar is required (please visit www.ShowMeSolar.org/join.htm for details on registering your membership if you are not currently a member).  Previous experience installing solar is not an absolute must but some familiarity with solar energy systems will be of benefit.  Consider enrolling in a solar energy workshop sponsored by Show Me Solar’s training partner The Evergreen Institute (for details visit www.ShowMeSolar.org/training.htm).

To register contact Kevin at kallemann@showmesolar.org.  Provide your full name, membership status, phone number and email where you can be reached.  Details including directions will be forwarded upon registration.  Terra Bella Farm has generously offered to provide a picnic lunch to the Energy Raiser.  Those with special dietary concerns should plan on packing and bringing their own lunch.

Terra Bella Energy Raiser #2
Near Hatton, Missouri
9 am – 5 pm, Saturday October 16th, 2010
Registration Contact: Kevin Allemann,
kallemann@showmesolar.org

About Terra Bella Farm:

Located about twenty minutes from Columbia, Missouri and just under a hundred miles from St. Louis, Terra Bella Farm is 160 acres of mixed pasture, creek, and woods, with 12 acres of produce, herbs, and flowers. We strive to provide high quality food to fuel our local communities, our hard working apprentices, our extended families, and ourselves. We operate a thriving Communited Supported Agriculture program, and sell directly at area Farmers’ Markets, natural food stores, and restaurants. Community outreach such as leading educational farm tours, donating seedlings to community gardens, and finding homes for our surplus produce at local food pantries is vital to our long-term farming goals and our commitment to being a socially-responsible business.

Show Me Solar grass roots organized in 2007 as a non-profit public benefit organization and today is incorporated and based in the state of Missouri, the “Show-Me State”.  Board operated and member supported, Show Me Solar’s mission is to educate the general public about the benefits of solar living and to advocate for the increased use of solar energy in the United States. To that end we host free and low cost presentations, workshops, classes, and seminars and participate in fairs, festivals and events related to renewable energy throughout the nation and it’s territories. Show Me Solar organizes installations of solar systems for demonstration and training purposes – events referred to as Energy Raisers. Show Me Solar also partners with the American Solar Energy Society to sponsor annual tours of solar systems as part of the ASES national solar tour event.  To learn more about Show Me Solar and to join an event please visit our website at www.ShowMeSolar.org

Larry even constructed his own boom to lift the panels to the roof.  Work mounting the modules began Saturday morning and by Sunday evening was more than half way complete.  Each column of four modules was wired in series and readings of open circuit voltage Saturday averaged 350 volts.  The amorphous silicon panels were producing a little over 1 amp of current. The voltage will subside over time by about a third to stabilize around 60 V yielding about 60 Watts of solar power per module and a total of 3,300 Watts for the entire 56 module array.  The modules are manufactured by a Japanese company named Kaneka and distributed here in the United States by Sun Electric out of Miami, Florida.  Sun Electric currently offers special pricing on the panels of $0.98/Watt which is extremely low for small residential arrays.  Larry mentioned Sun Electric required he order an inverter with the modules in order to qualify for the low price.  He selected a SMA Sunny Boy 4kW utility interactive (high voltage) inverter.  Wiring of the combiner box, DC disconnect and inverter are planned for this upcoming weekend.

Plans have been made to log progress and performance data for Larry’s system on ShowMeSolar.org’s SunBeams Blog so check back regularly for updates.  If you are interested in learning more about Larry’s solar electric system and it’s installation or have a solar system of your own the details of which you would like to share please contact the Show Me Solar team for more details at info@showmesolar.org