Alternative Energy

Photovoltaic (Solar) Internet Resources

• Natural Resources Canada's Cartes PV Maps.  Solar panel orientation information and insolation data for many, if not all, Canadian locations, like Madoc, Ontario, via a location search.
• Switch Ontario and the Switch Ontario Wiki
• Mike Davis' Pubs.  DIY solar panel and dumping charge controller projects.  Almost anyone could build a charge controller using Mike's instructions and the cost is tiny compared to commercially available ones.  Mike also has some wind turbine articles.

I have prepared a schematic of a basic but complete photovoltaic (PV) system because people in the know have a propensity for leaving out the simple details that allow a topic to make sense to the unintiated.  For a 12 volt system, you need to produce about 17 or 18 volts DC in order to fully charge your batteries.  Solar cells currently available, typically either 3x6 or 6x6, both produce about 0.5 VDC.  Doubling the size, doubles the current produced.  The diode is needed to prevent your system from "ungenerating" at night and on cloudy days - in ohter words, it prevents energy stored in the battery from back flowing to the solar cells and being radiated back out to space.  I show one battery but you would actually have a number related to how many you can afford, how much energy you wish to store and the electrical load on the system.  The DC to AC converter should be a grid tie converter so that you can run any number of them side by side feeding a common load, e.g., your house, and they will play nicely together.  Using grid tie converters also to allows you to add conversion capacity as your alternative energy system grows.  Finally, using grid tie converters allows you to use a portable generator occasionally - just power down all converters, start and connect the generator and then power each converter back up.  The grid tie converters will synchronize to the generator which they see as being grid.