The Panels Are Online!

With all of the electrical hookups complete, an inspector from Guam Power Authority came by the office last week and gave us the go-ahead to flip the breaker to allow power to begin flowing from the solar panels into our distribution panel! So we are beginning to see the benefit of the solar panel array that we have been anxiously waiting to use. These additional 20 kW of power, combined with the 23 kW in the first phase, will allow us to generate about 300 kWh of energy on a nice, sunny Guam day. Over time, this will make a big difference in our energy budget, and will allow us to direct more funds to ministry expenses, such as more programming for the transmitters.

The inverter has a display screen showing the voltage, current, power and energy outputs of the PV system. The left side has the DC values coming into the inverter from the panels, and the right side has the AC output from the inverter to the building.

The inverter is mounted outside on the support posts for the panels.

The finished product happily chugging out power!

Waterworks

And this time, I'm not referring to our rainy season as noted by the dark clouds in the background of the first picture.  This week, we have been working to hook up the water lines from the test load (right) to the chiller (left).  Jim has been putting his pipefitting/welding experience to good use this week, and we have the water hookups complete!  The next step will be filling the reservoir with water to test the pipes for leaks, running conduit out to the test load and chiller, and then completing the electrical/RF hookups for the test load.

Jim showing off his soldering skills.

This was Paul's response when I told him he would be a rock star after I got his picture on the blog.

The Panels Are Up!

I, Andrew, am delighted to report that all of the solar panels for phase two of our project are mounted!  At the moment, the crew is burying the conduit that will carry the power from the inverter (which will be mounted on one of the posts holding up the panels) to our building.  We are looking forward to finishing up the installation and being able to make some power!

Here you can see phase two:

And here you can see both phases one (closest) and two (in the background):

Installation, continued...

Now that the posts are all in place for phase two of our solar array, we are ready for concrete!  The truck came yesterday, and the crew was busy pumping concrete, making sure that the posts stayed level as the concrete rushed into the holes.  After one truckload was poured, all but three post holes were filled, so we had another smaller load of concrete come down to the site today to fill the remaining holes.  With all of the posts now set in concrete, the crew is setting up the mounting hardware, and beginning to mount the panels!  We hope to have all the panels mounted by the end of the day tomorrow (Friday).  Then we can begin the work of wiring the panels to the inverter, and then into our electrical system.

The posts are set, leveled, and ready for panels!

The posts are secured in 8 feet of concrete.  These puppies aren't going anywhere...

The first panel of the second phase is mounted!

Installation for Dummies

This week, we've been taking advantage of the somewhat drier weather to install our antenna test load (also known as a "dummy load").  The real challenge is figuring out how to set up rigging to carefully pick up and balance the equipment while carrying it out to its designated place in the switch matrix.  After a relatively short period of trial and error, we were able to successfully balance the test load, pick it up, carry it up to the antenna field and drop it into place.

The next step was picking up the chiller and carefully setting it on the concrete footings we poured.

And there you have it!  Our test load and chiller are in their proper place. (The test load is under the tarp.) All that remains is hooking up the plumbing and the electrical/control wiring.

The Digging is Complete

Finally... the time has come when the contractor was able to get the auger to the site where we are putting the next set of solar panels.   Phase 2 underway!

It was still quite muddy, the auger got stuck once getting it to the post holes.  But eventually success.
And just in time.  About 10 minutes after the holes were completed the sky opened up and we had torrential rains for half an hour.   The thing to notice in these pictures is The Sky!

After the rain shower they were able to get all the posts in place.  Weather permitting the concrete will be poured Wednesday (tomorrow).

Arrival of the Panels!

On Thursday morning, the long-awaited panels arrived at the site!  There was a miscommunication between the shipper and the freight forwarder which resulted in us thinking that the panels were supposed to arrive in port last week.  But after many phone calls between Mike and the freight forwarder's dispatcher, we figured out that the next phase of solar panels was arriving a week later than we had anticipated.  So two flatbed trucks carrying our precious merchandise were a welcome sight at the office down here in Merizo!

Upon the arrival of the trucks, we promptly fired up our not-so-trusty forklift and got to work unloading the panels, mounting hardware, and inverter from the first flatbed with relative ease.  Once we unloaded the first truck, the second truck showed up with the posts and rails used for mounting the panels.  It was at this point where Jim, pushing the limits of the forklift's operating capabilities, wandered off the straight and narrow and wound up stuck in a rut along the side of the road.  Luckily, Paul came to the rescue and pulled him out with the backhoe.

After that fiasco, we unloaded the posts and rails from the second flatbed.  This was a bit trickier because of the length of the load we were picking up with the forklift.  We had to pay careful attention to how well the load was balanced before picking it up from the truck.

Once all the equipment was unloaded, we put the panels, inverter and mounting hardware into storage in the barn, and left the posts and rails out so they will be accessible when the installation begins tomorrow!  Looking at these pictures, you can see that it is now rainy season here on Guam, so we are racing to get these panels set up before the weather gets much worse.  Please pray that we can get the panels installed before the end of next week!