Designing photovoltaic systems for performance and reliability: a BLM perspective

✍ Scribed by Trent Duncan

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 710 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1062-7995
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-159x(199905/06)7:3<219::aid-pip264>3.0.co;2-7

✦ Synopsis

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has developed a process of assessing, designing, purchasing, installing and operating photovoltaic systems which meet the remote power needs. This process has been developed under a collaborative partnership with the Photovoltaic Systems Assistance Center (PVSAC) at Sandia National Laboratories. The purpose of this partnership is to establish the sustainable use of photovoltaic technology in the agency through increased familiarization and acceptance by employees and the public. Under the partnership, a total of 65 projects have been completed. The keys to successful projects discussed here include: an advocate of the project and users who believe it meets their needs, standardized systems purchased with standard speci®cations as `ready-to-install' kits, and involving the local maintenance sta and users during the installation. The systems resulting from this implementation process are performing extremely well. Published in 1999 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This article is a US Government work and is in the public domain in the United States.