Solar Power

Save the environment by harnessing the power of the sun! Solar power is becoming increasingly popular in Davis.

An Example of Solar Panels in the Village Homes

• On Campus Co-ops - A large array behind Ag Effort, in the organic garden
  

• Solar Community Housing Association
  

• West Village - Its 4 megawatt photovoltaic system makes it the largest zero net energy community in the country.
  

• Village Homes

Solar panels being installed in the parking lot between DHS and the VMC, June 2012

• Brinley Building has the largest rooftop solar panel system in Davis; the system cost about $300,000
  

• Davis Food Co-Op has PV panels on their roof
  

• GrahamFreeman's 1985 VW Vanagon Westfalia
  

• PVUSA - North of city limits
  

• Solano Park utilizes solar water heaters
  

• Tercero Residence Halls
  

• Fred T. Korematsu Elementary School
  

• In the parking lot between Davis High School and Veterans Memorial Center

• Blue Oak Energy
  

• Cooperative Community Energy
  

• Davis Energy Group

• ACE Hardware
  

• First Source Solar
  

• Quantys
  

• Reed Richerson, local REC Solar Representative in Davis, CA
  

• Talbott Solar

• The California Aggie article about SolarCity proposing a bulk community purchase of solar panels.
  

• Solar panels going up at DHS parking lot

Invaluable information for the person designing their own solar system:

For a grid-tie system (that's almost every installation in Davis) all that matters is the average energy output. Solar panels are rated by power, not energy. Here's the magic conversion for the Davis area:

Energy (kWh)/day = .0037 * panel rating (STC watts)


Energy (kWh)/year = 1.35 * panel rating (STC watts)

Example: You have a typical 200 Watt panel. 200 Watts * 1.35 = 270 kWh/year (worth about $30) will be produced by that panel. Panels like this cost around $700 as of 2010. The panel is perhaps half the total installed system cost.

These "magic numbers" (.0037 and 1.35) assume fixed-mount flat-plate solar panel(s) are south facing, at latitude tilt (38.5 degrees), loss factor (DC-AC conversion, dust, thermal derating, etc.) is 67%, 5.5 insolation factor for this latitude and specific region (cloud cover, etc.), year average.