One of the first projects under Oregon’s state-mandated Community Solar Program has been completed by renewable energy provider Neighborhood Power.
The project includes four 2.5 MW solar farms, three of which are fully operational. Subscribers save an average of 5-20% on annual electricity costs.
The project enables commercial and qualified low-income residential customers to buy energy from local solar farms. Daimler Trucks North America LLC, WorldMark Portland, and Clackamas County are among the initial commercial subscribers. The projects are all within Portland General Electric’s service territory.
The projects are using the Mana Monitoring Platform to track, report, and manage each farm’s energy production.
Neighborhood Power is a self-described renewable energy “micro utility” that sells solar power by the kilowatt-hour to residential, commercial, municipal, non-profit, and utility markets.
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Have they considered locating the solar panels at a higher elevation? At a higher elevation, say 3,000 feet above sea level, the solar isolation in watts per square meter is higher than at lower elevations, with more atmosphere blocking the full sun potential. Yes I measured this in San Diego County back in 2011. At 3,800′ elevation, I was getting around 930 watts per square meter on January 11, 2011 at about noon. The same day, and 1 pm, I was measuring only 850 watts per square meter in San Diego, around 125′ elevation. This is a significant change! And at the higher elevations, the air is typically cooler enhancing the solar output of a PV farm.
Also locating in a area that has less cloud cover will enhance solar PV production.
Thanks for listening!