SolarQuest® July 2004

  Monday 5th - Wednesday 7th

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EcoLapagos Report

 
 

Photos

 
   

MONDAY MORNING

Today I brought to class some of the equipment to be installed: inverter, charge controller, combiner box, sensors and manuals (unfortunately in english only).

MONDAY MORNING

The classes provided a core understanding of the work we all were performing. Some days the class used all the time available on the schedule.

MONDAY AFTERNOON

Ricardo, Eusebio and Christian are figuring out the best installation of the breakers and power bars in the combiner box.

MONDAY AFTERNOON

Closer view of the combiner box and the items to be installed.

MONDAY AFTERNOON

Two identical combiner boxes were installed for Array A and B:

1700 W: 72 Voc - 23.6 A

MONDAY AFTERNOON

Alexandra and Federico -as well as many others- are busy cleaning the electrical terminals of the wires that interconnect the PV panels for grounding.

MONDAY AFTERNOON

The new combiner box is fiber glass made, NEMA IV complaint.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON

Ricardo showing the "Centralita" installed in the Control Room.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON

The "Centralita" integrates charge controller modules and inverter modules in one single unit. The devices on the left wall are sensors and switches I installed in March.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON

The best alternative we found for the failure detected was total replacement of the system. The batteries can be seen in the next room through the open door.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON

Batteries for the PV system: 24 units @ 2V

900 Ah/100 h - BPSolar manufactured in France

TUESDAY AFTERNOON

Lead sulphate was deposited in all positive terminals.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON

Closer view of a positive terminal still attached to the negative terminal of its neighbor battery.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON

Luis Rosero working on the new combiner box

TUESDAY AFTERNOON

Luis showing the old combiner box and the new one. The marine environment of the Galapagos seriously degraded the metallic box originally installed.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON

Closer view of both boxes. The picture clearly shows the poor state of the old box. We expect that the newer one -and the components inside- will last much longer than the previous.

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON

Sulphated nut attached to the battery post. Both posts (negative and positive) have removable circular nuts. All batteries were disconnected and the nuts removed from the posts.

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON

Only the nuts on the positive terminals were severely corroded. The posts themselves were in good condition. All nuts were cleaned in a baking soda solution.

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON

The combiner box for Array A is installed. It contains five 6-Amper breakers; one power bar to combine negative leads; one power bar to combine positive leads, and one lighting arrestor.

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON

Comparative picture of the state of two battery post nuts. The one at the left was attached to a negative terminal while the one at the right was attached to a positive terminal. The corrosion on the left nut has practically destroy it.