Author Topic: From wisecrack to reality...  (Read 4070 times)

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Offline MadScientist267

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From wisecrack to reality...
« on: October 23, 2018, 01:27:15 pm »
Long story short, somewhere early on in the truck build, I made a simple but apparently life-course changing comment about "if nothing else, I'm building my resume"...

Well, in July this year I stumbled across a job fair for an upcoming solar farm installation to be built... Some time went by and I didn't hear anything back from them and more or less just kinda discarded the idea as "well it was fun to think about"...

A few weeks ago I get a call about coming up to join the team, and after some "fumbling" with some technicalities that put an additional delay on the process...

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I'm now one of them... ;D

So when someone tells you "I wouldn't mention the truck" in a chat room...

Yes, MENTION THE FRIGGIN TRUCK lol

Company and OSHA training behind me, I head into the fields of silicon tomorrow morning to help tie in the PV on a [relatively] small 26MWDC/20MWAC solar project here in northern Virginia, and as the safety guy doing the training put it...

"This is your launchpad for the 650 coming up next spring..."

 :o :o :o :o :o

I'm so there ;)

Steve
Wanted: Schrödinger's cat, dead and alive.

Offline DBCollen

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Re: From wisecrack to reality...
« Reply #1 on: October 23, 2018, 02:34:49 pm »
Congratulations Steve!!!!!!
Dustin.

Offline oztules

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Re: From wisecrack to reality...
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2018, 11:00:07 pm »
Congrats are in order Steve.
With your truck training, we know you will squeeze the last electron  out of them panels.

Best of luck with it.


.......oztules
Flinders Island...... Australia

Offline bj

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Re: From wisecrack to reality...
« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2018, 05:03:54 am »
   Congratulations Steve.  Another chapter has started.
"Even a blind squirrel will find an acorn once in a while"
bj

Offline Pete

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Re: From wisecrack to reality...
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2018, 01:51:52 am »
Hope it is a fun job Steve.
Will you be living in the truck when onsite?
Could add a few banks of ultra capacitors under it and charge them off the panels on the job.
Good luck
Pete

Offline hiker1

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Re: From wisecrack to reality...
« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2018, 11:30:58 pm »
Be safe..lots of luck...I miss working on the north slope...not just the money..had some great crews..fun times on the job..even thou your working your butt off..!
just do it

Offline MadScientist267

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Re: From wisecrack to reality...
« Reply #6 on: October 31, 2018, 07:00:35 pm »
Thanks guys.

Sorry it's taken me so long to respond... Yes, things are indeed pretty nuts. I've certainly seen things from a perspective now that few get to. It's mind boggling at times to think that while I've stood in a couple of spots now where "far as the eye can see" applies, this one is rather "tiny" in comparison to what's out there.  :o

It's pretty cool but the challenges I expected to find are actually rather different than what they are. The entire process and setup is very easy to see (with the exception of the HVAC side, I haven't made my way to that end of an inverter yet).

That said, my job isn't particularly physically demanding, currently I'm doing QC for combiners. It's a bit mentally taxing knowing I'm the one that's supposed to catch something that could have major implications if it causes a failure down the line, but other than that it's mostly *insane* amounts of walking.

I have a good bit of OCD, and so there's aspects of it that are absolutely perfect for me, others not so much. I didn't count on the remote nature of the job somehow... not that I expected it to be "in someone's backyard right next door" or anything... lol

It didn't hit home for me until I had made the drive a couple times up here and then actually started, just how remote it is. I don't have the truck with me, no... Despite there being a Y right around the corner, the rest of it doesn't work out for it and so a hotel about 1.5 miles from the site was the best I could do to get rolling.

I started out walking it and that was the plan, but of course that's just mileage above and beyond the field. I'm of course not the only one up here on the project, there's now about 200 of us on site, and this is one of those (literally) 1 light towns... not much here, so a bunch of us stay in the same hotel, and I'm able to ride with one of them more often than not.

The other aspect is they push the labor all the way to limits in terms of time... OSHA states no more than 13 days on with a minimum of 1 off. Days are 10 hours. So yeah, there's a reward for it but it's hard work no matter how you're involved.

I'm not sure what I'm allowed to get away with in terms of pics, but I figure at least one won't hurt, and while I know this doesn't really do much for anyone outside of what a quick hit on a search engine can, this one, I was "very close by" when it was taken ;D

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The white box in the center is one of the inverters.

Thanks again goes out to everyone who in one way or another allowed me to reach a point where not only I could see all this but of course understand the big picture in the process. Most there only know their specific job or those aspects which they've been involved in... I'm one of the luckier ones I guess in that way... I don't see the forest for the trees on many things, but on this one I get everything that's going on and it's really cool to see up close.

Related: I think solar panels grow on trees... they're between 4 and 6 feet tall, have really long branches with square leaves, and I swear someone just planted a bunch of single cells in the ground and let them grow up  :o ;) ;D

Y'all might be amazed at how fast those strings go up... it's crazy lol

Ok well until next time...

Steve
Wanted: Schrödinger's cat, dead and alive.

Offline bj

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Re: From wisecrack to reality...
« Reply #7 on: November 01, 2018, 04:43:40 am »
  As with any major job change, lots to learn, lots to adapt to.  You're up to it.
Keep us posted, as you can.
"Even a blind squirrel will find an acorn once in a while"
bj

Offline ZoNiE

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Re: From wisecrack to reality...
« Reply #8 on: November 03, 2018, 07:53:10 pm »
To think it all started so long ago in that Wal Mart parking lot and that nice girl handing you the keys to the Astro...
Congrats!


Offline solarnewbee

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Re: From wisecrack to reality...
« Reply #9 on: November 04, 2018, 09:05:17 am »
Congrats Steve! 👏👏👏
SN

Any day above ground is a day for potential mishaps

Offline MadScientist267

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Re: From wisecrack to reality...
« Reply #10 on: November 08, 2018, 07:42:40 pm »
Indeed it did. Wild how things turn out ain't it.

Got a cool pic of the impending sunset tonight and managed to strip out all the "construction factor" just by pointing carefully hehe

7892-0

Things are moving along.
Wanted: Schrödinger's cat, dead and alive.

Offline Pete

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Re: From wisecrack to reality...
« Reply #11 on: November 09, 2018, 12:25:57 am »
Hi Steve, just wondering. Looking at the panels they seem to be only held down by two clips each side. Just how strong are the mounts?
What wind loading are the panel racks designed to withstand.
Not sure if you are anywhere near Tornado Alley, but they look a bit lightly built from the photos.
Hope you are enjoying the job
Pete

Offline rossw

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Re: From wisecrack to reality...
« Reply #12 on: November 09, 2018, 04:45:51 am »
Hi Steve, just wondering. Looking at the panels they seem to be only held down by two clips each side. Just how strong are the mounts?

I thought the same thing when I first saw them too, Pete, but other photos show that the support arm UNDER the panels is quite a lot longer and they are actually "reasonably well" supported.

I wouldn't like to see them in a tornado, but I suppose there's an argument that says if the wind is THAT strong, better to let the module go than break the torque arm and supports trying to hold them down!

Offline MadScientist267

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Re: From wisecrack to reality...
« Reply #13 on: November 10, 2018, 05:39:37 am »
Yes, it's indeed a rather lightweight mounting system... You can see the detail of the brackets on the end of the one string there in the foreground. All the brackets are the same.

I don't pretend to know the entire philosophy behind the design, and I've wondered a few times myself how they'd hold up in any given scenario. That said, they do appear to be a bit stronger than they look at a glance.

I think the primary goal is installation speed with these, and they do go up at a rather insane rate. A crew of 4 can put up *well* over 500 panels in a day, using what amounts to only 2 tools. Experienced "glass throwers" (their term, not mine lol) occasionally do near double that, as per mention in our morning briefings.

With all of that in mind, there is definitely some flex that occurs along both the axis of rotation and perpendicular to it, as I've seen waves resembling the Tacoma narrows bridge during a breezy day, as well as a version that propagates when an end panel is given a good tug during an inspection.

I'm guessing that ultimately the design passes all the cringe checks "on the bench" because there's a whole lot of PV riding on it hehe

I guess time will tell huh
 
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Offline Pete

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Re: From wisecrack to reality...
« Reply #14 on: November 10, 2018, 02:52:13 pm »
Hi Steve here is another question. What string voltage do they use on such large arrays.
I have seen panels that caught fire on grid connect systems here in Australia. They were running something crazy like 600+ volts string voltage.
Sure the panel specs may allow for that but in practice printed circuits and panels can only hold back a certain voltage. In the cases I saw they didn't do that, a couple of sections melted causing the panel to catch fire.
Wow the glass throwers must work pretty fast, not much hope of long term employment at that pace, either the work or the body runs out sooner or later
Cheerio
Pete