operational experience with a 4 kilowatt solar system at a northern national park presented by: ken...

Operational Experience With a 4 Kilowatt Solar System at a Northern National Park

Presented By: Ken Kelln, P.Eng

Kelln Consulting Ltd.

• Prince Albert National Park

• The Narrows: A Well kept secret

• 20Km from Waskesiu• Pristine wilderness• Perfect location for

clean, quiet Solar Energy


• Prince Albert National Park Map

• One of Canada’s first national parks

• The Narrows Campground is located 20Km from the nearest power line


• The park is enjoyed by thousands of visitors each year

• Essential services such as, light, water and power are taken for granted


• Front view of the 64-64 Watt Uni-Solar Shatterproof Panels, providing 4 kW of power to the Narrows Campground


• Side view of the panel array

• Each panel has a dimension of 30” x 54”

• Each panel provides 4 Amps of current in sunny conditions


• Uni-Solar shatterproof panels were chosen due to the possibility of vandalism

• The panels stand was designed to accommodate 80 panels


• The electrical wiring meets the Canadian Electrical Code

• Each junction box collects energy from 32 panels and delivers it to the electrical building


• The panels are wired four in “series”

• 16 of these groups of four are “paralleled”

• This configuration provides 64 Amps at 48 Volts DC


• An important criteria for any Solar system is an engineered stand that can withstand the test of time


• Rear view of the panel and electrical building

• This building contains the batteries, inverters, back-up generator and charge control regulators


• Another view of the electrical building

• A 500lb propane tank fuels the back-up generator


• Combustion air for the generator is provided via the vent hoods

• Both AC and DC lightning arrestors provide lightning protection for the Solar System


• Two Trace 4048 sine wave inverters provide 8 kW of power at 240 Volt AC to the campsite

• Two 40 Amp regulators prevent the batteries from overcharging


• Eight 6 Volt Surrett batteries are wired in series to provide 1025 Amp hours reserve at 48 Volts (20 hr. rate)

• The batteries are housed in a vented battery enclosure


• In the event of extended cloud coverage, a 7 kW Onan generator provides back-up for the Solar system


• The pump house is located approx. 1500 ft from the Solar array

• It houses all of the pumps and water treatment facilities for the park


• These original pumps were powered by a generator before the Solar array was implemented

• These pumps were replaced with more efficient DC pumps


• Four surge tanks provide 120 gallons of surge capacity


• A 4 gpm suction pump delivers well water to a 2000 gallon storage tank for the park water supply


• Three 24 Volt DC Solar pumps provide 12 gallons per minute from the 2000 gallon storage tank to the park


• Filtered water from the 4 gpm well is purified by the UV sterilizer before entering the 2000 gallon storage tank


• • The pump house

power is supplied from the electrical building, stepped up to 600 Volts and, stepped down to 120/240 Volt


• Four 6 Volt Trojan batteries, in a vented battery case, provide 24 Volts DC to the pumps


• Dusk to dawn lighting is provided at each washroom building


• To minimize the lighting requirements, six skylights were provided in each of the three sets of washrooms


• State of the art t8 fluorescent lighting with 3M specular reflectors provide the efficient lighting for the washrooms at night


• The washroom lights are controlled by a infrared motion eye

• This minimizes energy consumption in the washrooms


• Toilets were changed from pressure flushed units to standard flush units

• Frugal Flushes were installed to minimize water usage and hence energy usage


• A fish filleting shack has a motion controlled compact fluorescent light

• This happy fisherman is filleting a whitefish at night


• Scott manages the marina

• Scott is a very energy conscious individual

• Again, t8 fluorescent lighting is utilized

• A reflector is absent


• Coke machines are not known for being energy efficient

• The first unit installed consumed three times as much energy as the whole site

• This unit only uses one-fifth the energy of the first unit


• Outside lighting is provided by this double tube, cold weather starting t8 fluorescent at 6400 lumens


• Our thanks to Barb Karcher, of Saskatoon who asked why not a Solar Powered park? Because of her the Narrows will remain a quiet, pristine wilderness for many years to come


Consulting Engineers

Lumsden, Sask.

operational experience with a 4 kilowatt solar system at a northern national park presented by: ken...

Documents

kelln consulting

solar system slide

ken kelln

eng slide

overcharging slide

electrical building

backup generator slide

volts dc slide