Community Solar

OCEC Community Solar Project

  • Funded by 31 Members – Built at the OCEC site
  • Activated on September 7, 2010
  • Produced 29,000 kWh in first year
  • 104 Silicon Energy 195-watt solar modules total 20,280 Watts of generating power in peak sunshine
  • There are 13 modules in series strings and 2 independent strings per inverter
  • 4 efficient 4,200-watt inverters convert DC power the AC power

Winthrop Community Solar Project

  •  Sponsored by the Partnership for a Sustainable Methow and owned by 49 OCEC members
  • Activated July 1 2011; the estimated annual energy production 32,500 kWh benefits the Town of Winthrop
  • 120 Silicon Energy 190-watt solar modules total 22,800 Watts
  • 5 inverters convert DC power to AC from 10 strings of 12 solar modules each

Energy Solutions designed and managed both projects.  Norwil Electric, Bart & Company, and Doug Haase Excavating installed the solar systems.

The Solar modules and inverter systems are manufactured in Marysville WA.  Cascade Concrete supplied the ecology blocks, and the steel pipes for the racking system at the Winthrop project came from North Valley Lumber.   

Both the Winthrop and the OCEC Community Solar Projects are now monitored with a web-based "SolarLog" system.  The data is updated every 30 minutes and can be viewed at:

  http://home.solarlog-web.net/105.html      

At this web site address there are several solar systems listed on the left side. The "OCEC, Community Solar Project" will be underlined and a picture of the system showing.  Click on "graphics" below the OCEC project to see the data. Further down on the left side is the "Winthrop Community Solar Project."  Click on it and a picture of the system will show.  Again click on "graphics" to see the data. 

(Graph from SolarLog website)

Above the graph and down the right side of the page are other options for viewing different data. After clicking on an option click the Magnifying Circle to see the results. To see data for individual inverters un-click "all" and click on the different inverters.  The "values" data is interesting because it shows the current energy production for each of the strings of solar modules and the efficiency of each inverter (this efficiency increases as a sunny day progresses).  You may have difficulty with the web site if you use Internet Explorer.  If your web browser is Firefox or Google Chrome there should be no problems.  Safari also works pretty well with SolarLog.
 

 

Together We Save