2/22/17

This week consisted of communication, for me at least. Using the designs that we've already come up with, I contacted Eric Rosenfeld for advice regarding positioning of the solar panels on the top of the guideway. The following is information that I've included in the Full Scale Test Track blog, though since it is my own information, I will include it here as well.

"He says there are four basic design concepts that he's considering: a sloped design, taking the design concept of Ron Swenson's Plantronics solar canopy installation, pitched roofs, flat roof design in which commercial racking system can be used, and ground mounts. He recommends SnapnRack, which attaches via screws but has systems that make it easier to remove and maintain.

After looking over Claude's and Andries' concepts for the column and guideway design, he suggests that it could utilize the sloped design with a central support, though he thinks a four support point design may be more sturdy. He worries that not many roads have islands in the center that we can place these supports into. Hence, he hasn't solidified a solar racking design because we haven't solidified a track design. Whatever orientation we make the top of the track have, the solar panels will have to adapt to.

While developing, we will need to let Eric know the distance between supports so he can develop a better racking system. Dr. Furman says the current design concept uses beams that are 24 meters apart, though we haven't really decided on that exact value yet.

Here are some options he's given us:

• a truss system will allow us to put more of the solar module weight on the track support beams and trusses, and less on the roof of the transit

• a thin-film canopy, which can be printed at any length, but he's unsure of how it will handle San Jose weather conditions

He also answered a previous question of ours. For the weight of the modules, he was previously considering SunEdison-R360EzC-4y module with a nominal power of 360.192W, efficiency 18.42%, approximately 22kg, at approximately 0.63 center per Watt. The modules are 1976mm x 990mm x 50mm. We need approximately 19,600 modules to run 88 pods for an entire year, assuming no alterations made. [https://cngsolarengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/SUNEDISON-%E2%80%93-R335-360.pdf]"

From here, we need to meet with Eric sometime in the next couple weekends to finalize the information we were seeking so that Claude can continue with his designs. Also, we were just given the rubric for Presentation 1, so I'm sure that a lot of our time in the next week will be spent on that.