Morning Brief: newer solar equipment ages gracefully, Solar FlexRack provides trackers for 14 MW of projects

New solar equipment ages better than legacy hardware, according to a new study from the American Institute of Physics. To come to this conclusion, Mark Bolinger and colleagues from NREL assessed the performance of a fleet of 411 utility-scale photovoltaic projects built within the U.S. from 2007 through 2016, a fleet which produced more than half of all of the solar electricity generated within the U.S. in 2017. The researchers found that, on average, the first-year performance of these systems was largely as expected, and that newer projects have degraded at a slower rate than older ones, while projects in hotter climates tend to degrade faster than those in cooler climates. Source: Science Daily
Solar FlexRack has supplied its TDP and TDP 2.0 Solar Trackers to Primergy Solar, to be used in 14 projects totaling around 8 MW, all of which will supply energy to schools in Illinois. The ground-mount solar systems range from 118 kW to 2 MW and are installed with native prairie grasses and pollinator gardens. Clean Energy Design Group is set to manage the operations and maintenance of the projects. Source: Solar Flex Rack
Nearly 1 MW of solar has been installed on the roof of a 300,000-square-foot Kroger bakery facility in La Habra, Calif. The installation was done by REC Solar and is the second California Kroger installation in the past year, following a 2 MW project at the retailer’s 555,000-square-foot automated distribution center in Paramount, Calif. The company also has solar installed on distribution centers in Clackamas, Oregon and Layton, Utah. Source: REC Solar
We’ve got another big-rig driver installing solar on his truck. This time, however, the owner is not a trucker by trade, but rather a solar advocate who wanted to see panels employed more on vehicles.
A company called GDI LLC is claiming to be able to transform the appearance of solar panels into a solid color, a full-color pattern, or a panoramic photo, without altering generation output whatsoever. The company touts the solution as being one for project owners who love the benefits of solar but, for some reason, can’t stomach how the panels look. Examples of the product are available here and here.