General information Location: Jaén, Spain Sunshine hours (yearly average): 4,9 hours per day Type of project: Commercial Type of application: Retrofit Time for design process: 1 year Time for construction: 4 years Realization: - [ Top ] Description This project has been carried out under the THERMIE Programme (number SE/00383/95/ES/UK), which is part of the fourth RDT framework programme of the European Union, and the programme PAEE (project number 2109) of the MINER (Spanish Ministry of Industry and Energy). The main objective of the project is the integration in a University campus of a medium scale PV plant using different architectural solutions (parking canopies, pergola, facade) for research and dissemination of PV. The project focuses on safety and protection solutions specially designed for crowded public areas. It is designed to produce about 15-20% of the electricity consumed at this University which is estimated to be around 280 MWh per year. The Project is made up of four different Photovoltaic Systems (system 1 to system 4) with several integration solutions. Basically, the general configuration of each of them is a PV generator which is connected through an inverter to the grid. A small new building has been built for housing the inverters, the data acquisition system and the safety and protection system. In the project standard PV modules are used: Isofoton PV modules (I-106) are made up of square monocrystalline silicon cells, anodized aluminum outline frame, frontal tempered glass and white Tedlar in the back side (the pergola ones have transparent Tedlar, which makes the structure semi-transparent). Connection boxes include bypass diodes. Shell PV A small new building has been built for housing the inverters, the data acquisition system and the safety and protection system. In the project standard PV modules are used: Isofoton PV modules (I-106) are made up of square monocrystalline silicon cells, anodized aluminum outline frame, frontal tempered glass and white Tedlar in the back side (the pergola ones have transparent Tedlar, which makes the structure semi-transparent). Connection boxes include bypass diodes. Shell PV modules are made up of blue square polycrystalline solar cells. [ Top ] System characteristics PV system power: 200 kWp Type of building integration: canopies, pergola, facade Type of cell technology: Monocrystalline silicon 106 Wp (1310mm x 652mm), Polycrystalline silicon 101 Wp (1200mm x 850mm). Module dimensions: canopies: 547m 2 each one, pergola: 154 m2, facade: 421 m2 PV-module construction: Steel structure Inverters: 24 Enertron tri-phase 60 kW (2x) and Fronius string oriented inverters 2.5 kW (15x) [ Top ] Project cost breakdown Engineering: € 57 340 Architecture: € 1 964 Pv modules: € 908 598 Inverter: € 188 234 Electrical material: € 26 234 Installation, cabling, civil work, support structure: € 328 387 Project visa: € 2 401 Total: € 1 513 157 Costs per kWh: € 0,22 (considering 30 years lifetime). [ Top ] Performance characteristics The electrical and building performance met the expectations. It has to be pointed out the excellent performance of the safety system of the installation, maybe the most outstanding aspect of the project. The safety and protection aspects are one of the most outstanding subject of the Project, and it has also been the most studied because of the high number of students at this Campus. The studies carried out about the safety and protection installation have been developed from two points of view: on the one hand, from the installation itself, and on the other one, from people safety. In this sense, it is important to point out the lack of legal regulation related to such aspects in this type of installations in Spain. In general, the risks that can affect an electric installation are due to overvoltages and overcurrents, although in our particular case, and because of the photovoltaic system working, the system will only be affected by overvoltages as a consequence of the eventual presence of atmospheric discharges. In this sense, the installation includes voltage limiters that reduce overvoltages to a value under the insulation level required to the equipment. These limiters are placed at the inverter input and output, at the DC junction general cupboard, and at the junction boxes of the different generators arrays. With the aim of keeping people protection, the installation includes passive and active measures to avoid direct and indirect contacts with the active parts of the system. In this sense the installation includes: a floating system configuration, a cover of wiring, a permanent insulation controller to detect the earth faults of the generators and an earth grid. Besides, positive and negative wiring are completely separated (different connection boxes). Electricity generated: 22 478 kWh from 1.8.1999 to 1.2.2000 System availability: 70 % Incidents or Outages: 2 (1 scheduled) Component: Inverters (electric interference) Cause: Design error (poor filter of inverter signal) Repair: Manufacturer Other (installation of new electrical line at University Campus) Cause: Scheduled electrical work [ Top ] Project team Client: Universidad de Jaén Avda. de Madrid, 35 - 23071 Jaén (Spain) Tel.: +34 953002434 Fax: +34 953002400 E-mail: aguilera@ujaen.es Website: http://solar.ujaen.es Project architects: Manuel Martínez Design: Manuel Martínez Engineers:Gabino Almonacid, Jorge Aguilera, Pedro Pérez Contractors: Newcastle PV Applications Center, Instituto de Energía Solar (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid), Sevillana de Electricidad (utility) PV Installer: Solar Jienense PV manufacturer: Isofoton (Spain) [ Top ]