Product Manager Green Roof Team LLC Skokie, Illinois, United States
With the advances in photovoltaic technology, the accessibility to PV installations have increased in response to financial savings and reaching carbon neutrality. The following proposal focuses on designing and evaluating solar with storage options for The Ohio State University’s medical campus and agricultural site. The university is one of the highest energy consumption areas within the state of Ohio. With the installation of solar with storage, the area’s demand on the grid is reduced while increasing their resiliency with the inclusion of energy storage sized for four days of autonomy. Programs from Aurora Solar and Helioscope along with irradiance maps by NREL were used for the preliminary feasibility study to determine rooftop areas with high solar potential. Then, Aurora Solar simulation validated the power product per square foot prior to the maximum power generation for the rooftop sites. Based on the values, the best rooftop sites were selected for a final design for meeting the PV Host Capacity and development constraints given by generated heatmaps and local jurisdiction codes. The rooftop PV systems included energy storage for four days of autonomy for critical loads calculated based on the recent year of historical data; however, the energy storage will utilize 50% of the capacity to peak shave during high consumption which further reduces demand from the grid and extends the battery life by limiting use. The designed PV system for the parking garage will be connected directly to the grid for being consuming by local demands as well as fast charge EV chargers installed on the ground level. The installation assists the Smart Columbus Initiative for advancing the city’s accessibility to clean energy and education in the area. The agrivoltaic site includes removing and replanting trees to optimize the development of the PV installation for increased power production and cost efficiency.
