431 



COST RATIONALE 



A generic design and costing is shown for a Plant using 

 fixed-tilt, flat-Plate Solar Voltaic Unit Generators 

 (SVUGs) arranged in East-West rows with sufficient 

 separation to minimize row to row shadowing for Pacific 

 Northwest Latitudes. The electrical, mechanical and 

 SCADA protocol external characteristics are 

 standardized to ensure SVUG interchangeability for 

 different manufacture photovoltaic materials techniques 

 and improved performance, capacity and lifetimes. 

 Isolating each SVUG at a power/SCADA coupler avoids 

 problems of a failing or faulted PV module in a series 

 string of eight or ten carefully matched PV modules, as 

 in present practice for PV power plants and test sites. 

 The isolation approach allows remote controlled 

 maintenance and SVUG placement and replacements "plug- 

 in' with robotic apparatus on rail-cars straddling the 

 East-Hest rows. 



Tracking the Sun with a flat-plate SVUG in daily E-W 

 transits and possibly in seasonal N-S solar elevation. 

 Increases the amount of daily and annual energy that 

 each square meter of SVUG aperture can gather. 

 Concentrators with lens or mirror-dish collectors 

 tracking the sun can in clear sky conditions deliver 

 more energy to a photovoltaic cell at the focus, where 

 the cell with some means of cooling can exhibit higher 

 efficiencies. However, each of these tracking schemes 



Pose 23 



