Minnesota Solar
By Energy Seeds
I love the State of Minnesota. It is beautiful. It is a natural wonderland. But this article is not about the State of Minnesota; it’s about solar electricity in a Minnesota county called Hennepin.
The solar installation consists of 528 of Wanxiang’s (pronounced juan-she-ong) 180-watt panels so we call it a 95 kW system (180w*528=95040w). (Wanxiang is a solar manufacturer out of China, but they are now building an assembly plant in Rockford, Illinois.) The system is on the Public Works Facility in Medina, Minnesota. It is the second largest solar electricity installation in the State of Minnesota.
If you want to see the data for the system, you can view it on line at the following site.
http://www.co.hennepin.mn.us/images/HCInternet/EPandT/Environment/Air%20and%20Energy/Cool%20County/Projects/HennepinCounty.swf
Green Circuit installed the system on the roof. This installation helps you win arguments in two ways.
1. You will find a lot of people over the age of 40 who will tell you that solar electricity panels do not work in northern states. You can point out to them that this is a system in the second most northern US state and it works all year round. The data link will help you prove the system works. Cloud covering is and important factor for PV solar power. Because of low cloud covering, Minneapolis-St. Paul has comparable annual sunshine of San Francisco CA and Jacksonville FL!
2. You will find that same group of people over the age of 40 arguing that solar electricity will not work in the US because it would take up too much land area for the installation of the solar panels. The pix here will help you show them that solar panels can be installed on the empty space on rooftops. This system takes up zero land area.
As you get older you will learn that people over the age of 40 do not like to admit they are wrong…ever. I am not suggesting that showing anyone over the age of 40 the pix of this rooftop solar electricity system and the data showing the electricity generation from the second most northern state in the will cause them to tell you that you are right and they are wrong. This will probably not happen. But regardless of what they say to you, they will know and you will know that you are right. That will have to be enough for now. If you need a public declaration that you are the winner in an argument, you need to become a lawyer where a judge or jury will make official calls. Otherwise, be satisfied that you know you are right.