Solar 2018: Providing Emergency Power And Surviving On Solar Boulder, Colorado, Usa

Abstract

Since Hurricane Hugo in 1989, solar has been used to provide electricity in disaster emergencies. Portable and consumer solar items powered lights, chargers, water pumps, radios and refrigerators.[1] What is notable is that historically, homes and businesses had utility interactive photovoltaic (PV) systems connected to the utility grid with battery storage. When buildings lost utility power, the PV/battery system provided power. In 2000 that changed. Net metering practices were introduced and batteries were eliminated from many photovoltaic systems. In the aftermath of Hurricane Charlie in 2004, despite sunny skies many grid-tied PV homes were 'dead in the water', or shall we say, 'dead in the sunshine' without the ability to access their own PV systems' power. Advance mitigation is the key to energy resilience. Some PV designs are once again including battery storage, protecting the systems from disaster power outages. Auxiliary distribution panels are often added to the design to assure emergency power to essential or critical items. From 2010 through 2014, the Florida Solar Energy Center, a research institute of the University of Central Florida, through the SunSmart Schools Emergency Shelter program, installed 118 utility-interactive (solar+storage) PV systems with batteries on schools throughout Florida.[2] These schools benefited from the onsite production of clean, silent solar electricity during daylight hours. If there happened to be a utility power disruption, these schools that doubled as emergency shelters were able to tap into battery power to keep essential items powered. The schools were real time tested during the 2016- 2017 hurricane seasons. After hurricanes Matthew and Irma, requests were made of the schools for information about the performance of their PV systems. Information was gathered from staff and administration from the SunSmart Schools. Only 3 school systems sustained damage and were still functional. This data provided noteworthy support for the importance of solar + storage and valuable 'lessons learned' on school staff awareness and education. Some of the schools were used as shelters by local emergency management. However, a major problem was full utilization, as school staff and emergency management personnel overlooked the full potential of this resource. In designating shelters, some schools with solar were forgotten and in those that were used, staff turnover and time elapsed since system installation created a gap in understanding of how to use what was available. Just providing a PV-powered shelter is not enough; training and periodic hands on exercises are needed to fully utilize this resource.

Publication Date

1-1-2018

Publication Title

SOLAR 2018 - 47th National Solar Conference of the American Solar Energy Society

Number of Pages

120-132

Document Type

Article; Proceedings Paper

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.18086/solar.2018.01.13

Socpus ID

85059418076 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85059418076

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