A 50 kilowatt distributed grid-connected photovoltaic generation system for the University of Wyoming

The University of Wyoming (UW) campus (USA) is serving as the site for a 50 kilowatt solar photovoltaic (PV) power system. Three sub-systems were sited and built on the UW campus in 1996. The first sub-system, a 10 kW roof-integrated system of PV roof tiles is located on the roof of the Engineering Building. The second sub-system-a 5 kW rack-mounted, ballasted PV system is on a walkway roof of the Engineering building. The third sub-system is a 35 kW shade structure system and is located adjacent to the parking lot of the University's football stadium. The three sub-systems differ in their design strategy since each is being used for research and education at the University. Each sub-system, being located at some distance away from one another, supplies a different part of the campus grid. Efforts continue at setting up a central monitoring system which will receive data remotely from all locations. A part of this monitoring system is complete. While the initial monitoring data shows satisfactory performance, a number of reliability problems with PV modules and inverters have delayed full functionality of the system.