Page 19 - North American Clean Energy March April 2016

RS485 expansion kit
SolarEdge introduces the RS485 Expansion Kit which provides an additional RS485 port inside the inverter or on the Control and Communication Gateway (CCG). e kit contains a module that users can install on the communication board using the ZigBee port.
is module has a 3-pin RS485 terminal block increasing the number of available connections. e additional RS485 port makes enhanced communications simpler and more cost-e ective with a multiple inverter system which can now be connected to meters, 3rd party gateways, and other devices with the additional RS485 port eliminating the need for a CCG. e RS485 Expansion Kit enables the connection of up to 16 RS485 buses with up to 32 devices each in a daisy chain con guration, at means installers can now connect over 500 inverters in a communication grid without a CCG.
SolarEdge | www.solaredge.com
Due to the roof con guration, the
small size, the shape, plumbing and other penetrations, the entire roof could not be covered with solar panels. e array had to be broken up to t between the roof penetrations. In addition, nothing could be installed on the sloped roof due to local building codes.
e second concept was to use a non- standard type of ballast system to reduce the awning from two panels in landscape orientation to just one row to keep them
up high enough to move about underneath. e awning design was rejected because the local building department disapproved of an awning system as low to the ground as was needed on the single story o ce building.
e third concept was to use a ballast system consisting of tight angles and T connectors rather than a rolled frame, which took up more space. is method left a smaller footprint on the membrane roof.
inking outside the box, the engineers and owners designed a fourth and nal solution to the problem. A Conex shipping container, was located quite a few feet away from the o ce building and permanently secured to the ground. Could panels be safely and e ectively installed on such a structure? What type of mounting system would work on a container that was only 40ft long and 8ft wide? Utilizing 10 degree ballasted frames on the main building as well as the Conex container, this system t perfectly on the Conex container without having to penetrate the roof by utilizing only ballast.
The result
One row of arrays was installed on the container and one row was installed
on the o ce building. e resulting energy is almost 9.455 KW of power
for the business. All because dedicated professionals worked through the numerous issues and thought not just out of the box but On Top of the Box.
Gary Heslington is the business development manager at TRA Snow & Sun and Laurie Anderson is CEO.
TRA Snow and Sun, Inc.
www.trasnowandsun.com
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3541 Hargrave Drive, Hebron, KY 41048
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North American Clean Energy 19