NEWINGTON, CT - Sept. 15 - Schüco USA and Sunlight Solar have completed a 40 kilowatt flat roof photovoltaic (PV) system installed on the roof of a dormitory building on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
The 40kW grid-tied system, installed atop Fisher Hall at the Yale Divinity School, is comprised of 262 Schüco polycrystalline 158-SP PV modules each with a +5%/-0% performance tolerance each producing 158 watts of peak power. The system was mounted with Schüco's SolarEZ™ mounting system which is suitable for photovoltaics and solar thermal systems installed on flat roofs as well as composite shingle, S-tile, mission tile, and or standing seam metal pitched roofs. The custom mounting system was made to accommodate panels mounted at 15 degrees.
All materials used in the Yale project were warehoused and distributed through the Schüco USA North American headquarters located in Newington, Connecticut. Schüco also provided design and wiring layout services on this project.
"Schüco USA is supporting both PV and solar thermal installers throughout the mid-Atlantic and New England region utilizing our Connecticut location," said Schüco Senior Solar Director, of Sales and Marketing Helmut Gehle. "We stock a large supply of the complete Schüco's high performance PV modules, easy to install mounting systems, inverters, pre-integrated solar thermal packages and balance of systems components. With our international supply base products so that we can meet installers' deadline demands. Our company here in the US has combined the best of German engineering capabilities with American ingenuity. We are currently looking for solar dealers/installers throughout the US."
Schüco's mounting hardware can be deployed in a variety of applications using a minimum of universal components. Due to the flat roof at Yale's Fisher Hall, and the decision not to penetrate the roof, Schüco's easy installation using Schüco's Universal Mounting System that includes easy-to-install pre-mounted flat roof brackets were mounted on base rails, which combined the system to one homogeneous grid, mounting hardware that can either be ballasted or connected with the building structure.
The installation was handled by one of the most active solar PV installers in the region, Sunlight Solar Energy, Inc.
"I liked working with a local distributor," said Sunlight Solar President Paul N. Israel. "The materials were readily available, the engineering support is excellent, and the ballasted racks were the solution to this flat roof job. These racks are part of a true, integrated system and nothing at all like buying racks off the shelf and adapting panels to the racks. In fact I'm already specing Schüco products on a larger job."
Schüco products are the first materials used in a solar installation at Yale, the school having enacted one of the most aggressive university-wide greenhouse gas reduction strategies in the America. According to Yale officials, the new array will provide about two-thirds of the building's electricity demand during daylight hours and is the largest system installed at any Ivy League school.
This project was made possible through the support of Connecticut's Clean Energy Fund.
