A key challenge for this project was to design a system to offset manufacturing electricity usage, expenses, and greenhouse gas emissions, whilst also avoiding the long term loss of performance effects from Potential Induced Degradation (PID) that can occur in systems with a high DC voltage.
84 x ET Solar ET-P660250 Panels (PV array 1)
84 x ET Solar ET-P660250 Panels (PV array 2)
2 x STP 17000TL-10 Inverters
At the time of installation, little was known about Potential Induced Degradation (PID), a phenomenon that causes significant performance loss in systems with high DC voltages. Due to the large quantity of panels and high DC Voltage (in excess of 800V DC) required to suit the customer’s energy needs, the system was designed to include SMA offset boxes to ensure charge draining of the array each night. This draining of charge essentially ‘refreshes’ the solar panels each day and prevents the development of Potential Induced Degradation losses.
