Specialists in ultra high performance bifacial ground mounted arrays.
Optimize energy usage and cut costs with New Hampshire Solar's unique bifacial arrays and residential battery backup systems.
Optimize energy usage and cut costs with New Hampshire Solar's unique bifacial arrays and residential battery backup systems.
Have you ever spent a day out in ther winter sun skiing, skating or perhaps ice fishing and come home with a sunburn?
Well... there's your answer, the amount of solar irradiation that is reflected by ice and snow is truly significant, so why not harvest it!
Conventional solar modules are opaque on the backside and can only gather their solar irradiation from the front. Bifacial modules however have clear glazing on both the front and rear and can capture energy from either side. The amount of extra harvest captured from the backside during the warmer months when the ground is bare is negligible, but during the winter months when there is generally snow on the ground the gain from the backside can amount to as much as a 25% additional boost to the amount of energy harvested by the front. Extra power right at a time of year when most homes can really use it!
This is the results of a test of a Prism 295 watt bifacial solar module mounted on a frame tilted at 35' and sitting in the middle of a frozen pond. The first column gives the total power measured from both the front and the rear.The second column is the power output with the front side covered with cardboard and is thus the reflected power being captured by the backside only and as you can see, it is truly significant!
The reasons that the front side only power shown in the third column is so higher than the official 295 watt STC rating (front face only) was both the cold temperatures and the extra amount of energy being reflected off the ice. Bifacials love our New Hampshire winters!
This is the simple frame that was set up for our initial March 2017 testing of a 295 watt Prism bifacial module. The 295 watt rating is what is known as the STC (standard test condition) rating and it only takes into effect the power captured by the front of the solar module. The STC rating is the standard performance parameter used by the industry and the governrment, but on a cold late winter day at noon a 295 watt rated bifacial module will often produce well in excess of 400 watts!
This is the underside of the array shown on the welcome page and is typical of a fixed ground mount set at the usual 35' pitch. Note how the sunlight filters through between the individual solar cells that make up a module and creates the very cool shading pattern on the white stones below.
Fixed ground mounts are the least expensive bifacial ground mounting but will still far out produce a similar wattage convention roof mounting. They are also fairly low in profile.
This is a the annual production of our first bifacial installation as shown on the monitoring that is provided with each of our installations. This 32 module 9.44 kW (stc) split array was completed late in 2017 and the graph represents the following year. Note how steadily the harvest grew from Jan - March, and then dropped off in April. Why?? the snow had melted. Also take note of the sizable jump between Nov and Dec on the right side of the graph. Apparently 2018 had a white Christmas!
This is a MT Solar tilting top of pole mount, and though a little more costly than a fixed ground mount it is brilliant all around solution. The MT tilting mounts have become our most popular installations. The tilt of the array can be quickly and easily changed with the included awning crank shown in the next photo. By changing the angle of the array seasonally to directly face the noontime sun about 5-7% of additional power front side power can be captured from the sun.
The underside of a MT titlting single pole mounting, the awning crank can be seen just to the rear of the 8" main pole. Most of our clients only change their pitch four times a year, setting it to 35 degrees for the Spring and Fall months, 25 degrees during the summer, and 50 degrees during mid winter. The additional advantages of the pitch changes are that it is very easy to mow under the flattened array during the summer, and snow slides instantly off the steeply pitched array in winter.
The BIG Dog - an All-Earth dual axis tracker. These arrays are somewhat large and costly, but they do produce far more power than any other type of array. A tracker automatically adjusts both it's pitch and azimuth continuously so the front of the array is always facing directly at the sun. The midday production isn't all that much greater than a well placed fixed or tilting ground mount, but the additionally gains that are had during the early and later hours of the day are enormous.
Because there is far more demand than time, New Hampshire Solar has chosen to focus primarily on ground mounted arrays and installs only in central NH.
For the more roof mounted arrays I would suggest contacting New England's largest solar installer, Revision Energy, and of course other installers that may be local to your area. Be sure to get multiple bids!
To best serve our clients we only service those systems that we have installed.
All of NH Solar's installations are installed and serviced by the wonderful crew at VH Energy.
NH Solar's emphasis is to provide you, the client, with the best possible solution for your present and future energy needs. Each design is individually created by first consulting with you on the phone to get an idea of your goals and the possibilities. We will then generally email you a preliminary proposal based on our conversation, and that should help you to clarify your initial thoughts, questions, and planning. The final step is to meet together at your site and go over all of the little details that will needed to design perfect solar system for your wants and needs!
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