This week's expected snowstorm is likely to tangle
traffic and close schools, but it may not stop Ohio's largest solar array from
producing electricity.
The 159,200 solar panels at the PSEG Wyandot Solar Farm in Wyandot County's
Salem Township typically generate enough heat from absorbed sunlight to clear
accumulated snowfall, said Curt Judy, manager of development at PSEG Solar
Source LLC, the array's owner. Each of the panels, made locally by First
Solar Inc., is at a 25-degree angle, which helps snow and ice slide off.
"After we get 2 or 3 inches of snow overnight, generally it's either completely
melted or it slid off to the ground at 10 o'clock in the morning," said Mr.
Judy, whose 12-megawatt array supplies energy for American Electric Power.
Operators and owners of local solar arrays say the technology is functional
during northwest Ohio's snowy winter months, although they generate less
electricity than in the summertime.
Steve Giles, chief executive of the engineering firm Hull & Associates Inc.,
said that's the case for a 250-kilowatt solar array that his company is
installing at Pilkington North America Inc.'s research and development
facility in Northwood. The $1.5 million array, expected to be completed this
month, includes more than 3,400 First Solar solar panels with glass made by
Toledo-based Pilkington.
"These panels are designed to absorb the sun and, as they do, they heat up," Mr.
Giles said of the panels' ability to melt snow.
Although their 11-degree tilt can help the Pilkington panels stay snow-free,
larger snowfalls could be harder to clear away, Mr. Giles said. In that case, he
said, maintenance workers would remove snow from the panels in a process similar
to brushing snow off a car windshield.
Most northern solar installations are capable of melting away snow as the winter
sun heats up solar panels, said Monique Hanis, spokesman for the Solar Energy
Industries Association in Washington.
"It may take a day or two of sun burning through to melt the snow away," she
said.
She added that winter months sometimes have sunny, cloudless days that can
provide strong solar production. "Some of the best solar days I've seen have
been in February," Ms. Hanis said.
Toledo receives a yearly average of 4.3 kilowatt hours of solar energy per
square meter per day -- a unit used to measure solar radiation -- according to
the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. That's compared to 6.4 kilowatt hours
per square meter per day in Phoenix, where First Solar has its headquarters.
The figures are based on solar installations that are tilted south to capture
more sunlight.
The contrast is similar in winter months. Toledo receives an average of 3.4
kilowatt hours of solar energy per square meter per day in February, compared to
5.3 kilowatt hours per square meter per day in Phoenix, according to the energy
laboratory.
Less sun in the winter means less electricity produced by local solar panels.
The Wyandot Solar Farm produces 65 percent less electricity in the winter than
in the summer, Mr. Judy said.
PSEG incorporates the decreased electricity generation into its production
expectations for the solar array, Mr. Judy said. "So far this year, it's right
about what we expect."
Mr. Giles said electricity from Hull's array, expected to supply about 12
percent of the power needed at Pilkington's Northwood facility, will be
supplemented with power from FirstEnergy Corp. if there isn't enough sun to
generate solar power. "You could have a day of no production at all," he said.
"That's the reality of these systems."