Title:	Photovoltaic Solar Urban Power Plants Integrated in Urban Furniture Allowing for Solar Communities within Urban Environments
Author(s):	H.-J. Rodríguez San Segundo, A. Calo López, C. de Vicente Suso
Keywords:	PV Markets, Small Grid-Connected PV Systems, Distributed System Operators (DSO)
Topic:	PV System Performance and Integration
Subtopic:	Building, Infrastructure and Landscape Applications
Event:	33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition
Session:	6DO.12.2
Pages:	2143 - 2146
ISBN:	3-936338-47-7
Paper DOI:	10.4229/EUPVSEC20172017-6DO.12.2
Price:	0,00 EUR
Document(s):	paper

Abstract/Summary:

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Community solar concepts are starting to make noise especially in certain US and European regions. In those concepts, any end-user can participate in either purchasing clean energy from a solar PV power plant and/or investing in a portion of such power plants. However, usually these power plants consist of conventional flat PV silicon modules, usually in the MW scale far away from the cities. We propose here to bring solar communities right to the front door of the end-users. With the aim of really socializing solar energy, a Photovoltaic Solar Urban (PSU) power plant is presented, made of very small, but widely spread solar generators especially designed to be attached to any urban furniture (for instance, streetlights) and generate right at the consumption points, avoiding transmission, conversion, tax costs of bringing the energy from far away (almost 40% of the total final price). And also using publicly, widely spread available, already existing and amortized supporting structures (urban furniture). To do so, a novel concept of mini solar module of 40 Wp has been developed and is currently being tested. First simulations on its performance show their worldwide profitability.