Solar Electric, Wind & Remote Power
Solar electric modules and wind electric turbines can be used in a remote power system, in a line-tie system, or in a backup power system.
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12 Sunwise solar electric modules mounted on a dual-axis Watson tracker from Array technologies. RMS supervised the installation of this system at the Barr Camp at the side of Pike's Peak. |
Remote power systems do not have utility power available. They almost always include an inverter and batteries. The inverter is the major component in the power center. In addition to the power center and battery bank, remote power systems include solar electric modules, wind turbines, or propane (gas or diesel) electric generations, or any combination of solar / wind / generator.
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A Southwest Wind Power H30 wind turbine being raised into position at the Southwest Wind Power factory. |
A line-tie solar or wind system is connected to a utility electric supply. Many utility companies do not pay much for electricity generated by solar electric modules and wind turbines, but in situations where the utilities do pay a significant amount of money, and the system is large enough, excess electricity produced can be sold to the utilities. This only begins to be economical where there are government incentives such as in California and a few other states.
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| A home wind and solar electric power center. |
Solar electric and wind electric can also be installed where utility electricity is present without connecting to the utility electric by use of a power center and a battery bank. A backup power system provides power only when utility electric is down.
System Sizing, Design & Pricing
For more
information on remote power systems, read Rocky Mountain Solar's Introduction
to Remote Power. Sorry, this article is in Word format so you need Microsoft
Office or some other program that can
read that format.
Here's
an article comparing
Outback Power and Xantrex/Trace Inverters.
Outback Power was formed by engineers who used to be part of Xantrex/Trace.
The new Outback Power inverters are the highest quality, most durable and frequently
most cost-effiecient inverters for residential and small commercial systems
anywhere on Mother Earth.
This
Load Sheet is used by RMS to determine how much electricity a given client
needs to be supplied by remote power or other systems. Once a client has filled
out the load sheet, we plug the appropriate information into our Solar
Sizing Sheet. For wind systems, we extrapolate from this Solar Sizing Sheet.
If you would like RMS to size your system, the first step is filling out the
load sheet. Remember as you fill out the load sheet that the less electricity
you need, the less your system will cost. Frequently, higher priced, high
efficiency appliances will save lots of money off of the cost of your system.
Fax (719-623-1649) or email your filled
out loadsheet to us here at RMS.
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RMS employee Jason installing an |
For those
who are interested, RMSI Remote Power, Line Tie
& Backup Power Estimate, Size & Design Policy.
Many
of our suppliers have online catalogs such as Sunwize
and Kyocera.
Both of these catalogs have additional information on sizing and disign.
Go to
the Sunwize catalog and the Kyocera catalog for detailed information and pricing
on solar electric system components. The prices in these catalogs are recommended
manufacturer's prices. RMS's prices are almost always lower than these prices.
See our solar electric module sale prices for Evergreen
170 and Evergreen
180 and GroSolar
155 kits. For wind turbine information and pricing see Bergey
and Southwest Wind and some of our much
lower pricing at wind turbine prices, also
in Word.
Suppliers & Resources
The following links to many, but not all, of our
suppliers and manufacturers are provided
as an information resource only. None of these web pages sells directly to the
public. So after
you have learned whatever it is that you need to know come back to us for personalized,
professional
service and very low prices.
Sunwize:
A wholesale supplier of a wide range of solar and wind products that RMS buys
from.
Kyocera:
Manufactures crystaline solar modules. Also a wholesale supplier of a wide range
of products.
Dankoff
Solar : Manufacturer of high efficiency water pumps and other equipment.
Outback Power: A newly formed company
created by many of the best engineers who used to be a part of Trace. They manufacter
inverters, charge controllers and related equipment that is in many ways superior
to the Xantrex products at a very competative price.
Xantrex/Trace:
Xantrex purchased Trace and so now Xantrex is the manufacturer of all of the
Trace products including inverters, charge controllers, and related products.
They have also purchased other inverter companies, so are now a very large and
diverse manufacturer of power equipment.
Astro
Power: Manufacturer of crystaline solar electric modules. One of only
two companies that are not owned by a major energy corporation.
BP Solar: Manufacturer of crystaline solar electric
modules that previously purchased Solarex.
Shell
Solar: Manufacturer of crystaline solar electric modules. Formerly Seimens.
Southwest Wind Power: Manufacturer of wind electric turbines.
Bergey:
Manufacturer of wind electric turbines.
Blue Sky Energy:
Previously RV Power Products.
A manufacturer of very high quality solar charge controllers and one of
only two manufacturers of charge controllers with maximum power point tracking.
Bogart Engineering:
Manufacturer of the TriMetric battery monitor.
Unisolar:
Manufacturer of amorphous silicon solar electric modules.
Unirac
: A manufacturer of solar electric module racks.
Wattsun:
Solar PV trackers, single and dual axis.
Zome
Works: Solar PV module mounts and passive trackers..
Trojan
Battery: Manufacturer of deep cycle batteries.
MK
Battery: Distributor for Deka Manufacturing and other batteries.
Deka
Batteries: Manufacturer of gel cell and deep cycle batteries.
Rolls
Battery: Manufacturer of very high quality medium to large size dep
cycle batteries.
Concorde
Battery: Manufacturers of low/no maintinence deep cycle batteries.
| For more information, product literature, and pricing, please contact us. | |||||||||
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| El Paso License #12613, Teller License #2341C Certified by The Colorado Solar Industries Association (Coseia) and Outback Power. |
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