General information Location: Denmark Sunshine hours (annual average): - Type of project: Up to date the largest Danish BIPV-demonstration project, with totally 300 systems placed on detached or semi-detached houses in 8 different smaller cities in Denmark. All systems were installed during year 2000. Type of application: Systems cover mostly retrofitted systems and a few newbuilt. Time for design process: Totally a two year process which included also the setting up of new quality assurance systems for PV Power systems in Denmark. Time for construction: Most installations were carried out during year 2000. Individual installation time typically within a week. Realization: 2000 [ Top ] Description The overall goals of the Sol300-project are: To contribute to the general trend of decreasing investment costs of grid-connected PV-systems; To stimulate technological R&D regarding mounting technologies; To contribute to the establishing of quality assurance schemes within the PV-industry; To develop and extend the involvement of the utilities in PV-technologies to make this a future business area; To increase the general awareness in public about PV-technology. In the original objectives of the project, the plan was to develop new mounting techniques, especially suited for the Danish tradition of construction. However it was quickly decided to reduce these activities to a limited effort, since changing mounting technologies for the products of the larger manufacturers were complicated and expensive, and would have required a longer project period to cover all necessary tests, verification etc. Large focus was given to the fact that almost all 300 houses were unique in their design and orientation. The architects working on the project carried out individual proposals for each building or groups of buildings, which were discussed with the individual house owner. The architects found the mounting systems and limited possibilities in variation of the modules as the main barriers to obtaining a full integration of the modules in the buildings. Most of the systems are now installed on the roof and not in the roof. One targeted experiment was carried out to fully integrate the PV panels in the existing roof construction. The result was satisfying from a technical point and aesthetically point of view, but the economical benefit of substituting normal roof plates with PV-panels was not possible to identify. It was concluded that in order to have this benefit, the systems need to be more flexible and quicker to install - preferably as pre-produced roof-elements or designed as very flexible and quick mounting technology. [ Top ] System characteristics Within the Sol300 project three types of systems can be distinguished: SOL-300 (A) PV system power: 1,0 – 4,1 kW (total of 250 kWp) utility-interactive Type of building integration: flat-roof, roof-integrated, roof-mounted & building canopy Type of cell technology: 85 watts single crystalline (BP 585L /BP585F), Manufacturer: BP solar Inverter: String inverter of 1,020 watts (1 – 4), Inverter manufacturer: SMA SOL-300 (B) PV system power: 1,1 – 3,8 kW total of 250 kWp) utility-interactive Type of building integration: flat-roof & roof-mounted Type of cell technology: 120 watts (IBX MSX 120) multi-crystalline, Manufacturer: BP-Solarex Inverter: String inverter of 1,1 – 1,9 kW, Inverter manufacturer: SMA SOL-300 (C) PV system power: 1,1 – 3,8 kW (total of 250 kWp) utility-interactive Type of building integration: flat-roof, roof-integrated & roof-mounted Type of cell technology: 75 watts (Shell RSM 75W) multi crystalline, Manufacturer: Shell solar Inverter: Central inverter of 1,5/2,5/4,0 kW, Inverter manufacturer: ASP [ Top ] Project cost breakdown It was one of the primary goals of the project to investigate the possibilities to obtain very low prices by tendering all solar panels in open price competition. The turn-key price turned up to be very low, only USD 4,85 per Wp (€ ~ 5,53). Because the tendering was made as whole system price competition, no detailed split in the individual components and design costs are possible. The value of the electricity produced is, due to the net metering agreement, the same as the consumer electricity costs inclusive of all taxes and VAT. The electricity prices vary slightly between the different geographical locations, but is in average around USD 0,13 (~ € 0,15). [€ 1 ~ 0,877 USD] [ Top ] Performance characteristics The systems have so far performed according to specifications. All buildings have been equipped with a special meter, which shows the balance between the electricity produced by the PV Power system and the electricity consumption of the household. It has turned out that the energy consumption of the households in most situations has been reduced since the installation of the Energy Guard system.Asking the individual households it has turned out that many families, when looking at the meter, try to switch off various equipment to make the PV-systems produce more energy than the household consumes. Furthermore the availability of all monitored data on the internet from similar houses and systems make it possible to compare the data and generally increase the awareness of energy use among the households. A similar effect has been seen from various other Danish demonstration projects such as The Yellow House in Aalborg, Denmark, where a similar system of Synergyr has been installed to document the consumption of electricity, heating and water for an individual household. [ Top ] Project team Client: The Danish Energy Agency and Eltra (Utility) financed the project Project architects: Ulla Falcks Tegnestue, Ellen Kathrine Hansen, Hanne Lehrskov, Jørgen Lind, Knudsen & Halling Design: by project architects Engineers: Encon with assistance from steering group PV manufacturers: Shell Solar, Gaia Solar, BP Solar, IBC Solar, Scanpocon, OI-Electric and Salten El. [ Top ]