Full-Scale Solar Team

This week, the Solar Team has finalized the design and started gathering materials to build the project. This week, Francisco finalized the little details that pertained to the design, Jordan went to San Leandro to pick up the purlins and hardware that are to be used in the assembly, and Patrick picked up the solar panels from Hayward. This coming week, the team will start the assembly process and physically build the project.

For the week we finally have our prototype design on solidworks, the solar team was given the green light to begin purchasing parts and getting everything ready for assembly. Patrick has taken the role for assembly lead and is in charge of the assembly of the prototype as well as testing the gator clamps that are awaiting arrival. Further work on the wind loading slides from last presentation needs to be done. We are in talks with Ralion about getting the solar panels and we will have those in the shop by the weekend. We hope to have the initial steps of the assembly completed by next week as well as the clamps tested.

This week, the Solar PV team delivered our presentation focusing on the finalization of our solar array design, future plans for testing on materials to make sure they're up to snuff, and our plan for acquiring all the materials we need to finish construction. We've divided this all into several parts. 1. Contact various purlin manufacturers and get quotes. Whatever quote we decide is the best for the money, then we will pursue that option. 2. Finalize our solidworks design so that we can size all the pieces properly. 3. Get in contact with the central shop or any 3rd party shop to manufacture a couple of brackets that we need. 4. Reach out to the materials enginering department to gain access to the materials lab and do testing on materials. 5. Finalize any discrepancies that we have with any mis-information that we have. Sticking to this strict guideline, the team will work tirelessly to get everything lined up so that construction can begin immediately.

For the week of 4/10 we resumed from spring break. Some tasks that the team accomplished over spring break consisted of finding ideas on Google Patents and research components for structures. We will continue to meet with Prof. Furman outside of the allotted time. For the week to come we will research C channels, look up different seem clamps and their costs. Additionally, the Solar team will create clamps on SolidWorks and integrate with C channel and solar panel frame. Lastly, we will find all components for solar array installation and price.

For the week of 3/27/19 we have narrowed down an idea on what to work with for clamping the solar panels from underneath. With spring break next week we are going to be putting in a lot of work to ensure we have a good presentation the following meeting. For the week to come we are going to be generating multiple ideas to implement the clamp and make solidwork models as well as sketches. We will also be researching several racking structures with and emphasis on cost per length. Further information for clamps will be gathered from google patents to help us create several ideas.

This week, the Solar PV team focused on several key concepts that Dr. Furman, Mr. Swenson, and Mr. Abulet had helped guide to the team attention. The concepts are listed below. 1. Get in touch with Sunpower Distributors and R.S. Hughes Establishing a connection with these two entities will help the team gather more information about real mounting solutions and real adhesives/velcros that can be used on this project. 2. Work on putting together a racking solution in solidworks and marrying it to a frame. By doing this, along with some prototypes, the team can learn more about with solutions work and which ones may need more tweaking to work. 3. View racking structures for ideas Just like the solutions from the distributors, this will give us better ideas of how to marry components. 4. Max load for solar panel, or wind load that would break the panels. Understanding the maximum wind load on the panels will help was be aware of where to mount, what angle to mount, and ...