Power Jobs in Solar Photovoltaic

--Debra Sands Miller

Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Southwest Santa Rosa Center at 950 Wright Road, students enrolled in ELEC 156: Photovoltaic Systems are using sun charts to determine sun angles and module IV curves to estimate module outputs, and are also designing grid-tied photovoltaic systems and using SunEye digital image processing and analysis tools to compute shading and solar access percentages.

Thanks to generous donations of solar modules from DC Power Systems in Rohnert Park; racking from Ironridge in Willets and Unirac in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and roof attachments from PV Quickmount in Fremont, students also have hands-on experience with industry-standard equipment. From attaching mounts to the roof and installing the racking system to mounting the modules and connecting to an inverter, class participants start learning to install a photovoltaic system and end up with a working solar array.