Plastic mounting racks molded for South Bend, Ind.-based Kanzo Inc. are helping the solar energy industry shine brighter to a small, but important, degree, according to President Nick Kanczuzewski.

The fasteners, which are made of polycarbonate with extreme ultraviolet stabilization (PC-XUV) at 21st Century Plastics Corp. in Potterville, Mich., are designed to tilt solar panels 12.5 degrees on flat rooftops. That’s slightly more slant than other racking systems and it produces more electricity, Kanczuzewski said in a telephone interview.

Kanzo rack users will get an additional 22,000 kilowatt/hours per megawatt (MW) per year compared to 10-degree racking systems, which is a common tilt in the industry, Kanczuzewski said. (One megawatt can power 164 houses.)


“In general, in the United States we have found 12.5 degrees to be the most efficient angle,” he said. “It gets you the most production out of your module. I can’t say we’re the only one that has 12.5 degrees, but I don’t know of any other so it’s relatively unique.”

Also, unique: using PC. Most solar racking systems are made of metal but a few plastics, namely polyethylene, acrylonitrile styrene acrylate (ASA) and polyphenylene oxide and polystyrene (PPO/PS), have made inroads in the last five years. Plastic racks cost less, don’t corrode, and are lightweight for shipping and handling at job sites.

Kanzo started out using ASA but switched PC in an attempt to blaze a new trail, Kanczuzewski said. The company is going for UL 2703 certification and is in line to have the first classified polymer-based rack to meet the industry standard that regulates the structural and mechanical integrity.

“They do some crazy weather testing from extreme cold to extreme heat. They cycle it back and forth like 20 times, holding it at certain temperatures like -30° to 180° [F],” Kanczuzewski said. “Other materials like ASA and polyethylene can’t handle it. They deform, but polycarbonate has the thermal capabilities to handle those extremes.”

To get to this point, Kanzo partnered with researchers at Chase Plastics, a resin distributor based in Clarkston, Mich.; Omni Plastics LLC, a custom compounder in South Bend; and a wind testing firm in Colorado.

“They did complete studies and our racks work in wind speeds up to 90 mph,” Kanczuzewski said.

The Kanzo system is geared toward big warehouses, distribution centers and manufacturing facilities with roofs that have 0-3 degrees of pitch. The mounting system is made up of the PC rack and a pair of stainless steel clamps. The rack has a tray to hold a ballast block — usually 34 pounds of concrete — and that anchors down the system.

Kanzo has four patents on the rack and clamps. The products have been used in about a dozen small projects in the 10 to 25 kilowatt range as well as a 130-kilowatt system on a warehouse in Indianapolis. The latter installation was part of a 10-megawatt project for Duke Realty, which is a publicly traded company that owns, manages or has an interest in 142 million square feet of rentable business space in the United States.

Kanczuzewski said Duke Realty shied away from going “full-scale Kanzo” because the product is still new but the real estate investment trust did use 690 racks to install 500 solar modules, or panels, on the warehouse.

Breaking into the market has been a challenge. Kanczuzewski said solar racking has reached the point where it’s seen as a commodity but the plastic products in the market still are proving their value.

“In terms of structural integrity and strength, a lot of people doubt plastic can do the job for 25 years or so on the rooftop. That’s what’s expected,” he said. “Modules last 25 to 30 years. The racking system has to do the same.”

Kanzo officials expect the UL tests to help them “overcome a lot of discrimination” along with the other benefits of the system, which they say is easy to install. No nuts and bolts or other pieces are needed. A cordless drill, laser guide and torque wrench will do.

“Each rack has two clamps and that’s it,” Kanczuzewski said. “If you have a good starting point with everything square and flush, you can build out the system without crazy chalk lines and all kinds of measurements. We call it an organically growing system.”

During shipping, the racks stack 120 to a pallet and 2,880 fit in a 53-foot semi-truck.

“That’s like a megawatt worth of racks,” Kanczuzewski said, adding it should reduce shipping costs for customers.

In terms of product costs, he said Kanzo is competitive with the industry, which is seeing prices drop as demand grows. A 30 percent federal tax credit for residential and commercial solar energy projects has fueled much of the growth since 2006. After Dec. 31, 2016, the incentives are set to roll back to 10 percent for commercial properties and expires for residential.

The U.S. residential solar market just shattered a previous record by growing 76 percent in the first quarter of 2015 vs. the prior year, according to the U.S. Solar Market Insight Report released June 9 by GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association.

This segment grew 11 percent compared to the last quarter of 2014. The increase represents the installation of 437 megawatts of photovoltaic (PV) systems, which convert sunlight to electricity, in the first three months of the year despite the cold, snowy winter.

Across all market segments, the U.S. added 1.3 gigawatts of PV. (One gigawatt can power roughly 750,000 homes.)

“We expect another record year for the U.S. PV market in 2015, with installations reaching 7.9 [gigawatts], a 27 percent increase over 2014,” the report says. “The fastest growth will come from the residential segment, followed by the non-residential segment. Utility PV will grow the slowest compared to 2014, but will still account for well over 50 percent of all installations brought on-line for the fourth consecutive year.

The original article is found at Plastic News.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In celebration of today’s 45th annual Earth Day, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) plans to mark the historic occasion every 2.5 minutes of every hour of the day, as a new solar installation is completed in America. What’s more, new figures from the U.S. Solar Market Insight 2014 Year in Review show a record amount of new, clean solar energy coming online over the next 20 months, greatly benefitting the environment.

“On April 22, 1970, when the very first Earth Day was held, there was virtually no solar energy powering the grid in the United States,” said SEIA President and CEO Rhone Resch.  “How times have changed.  Today, there are 20 gigawatts (GW) of installed solar capacity in the U.S. – enough to power more than 4 million American homes – and we’re going to double both of those numbers by the end of next year. That’s our commitment to America – and to our planet. By the end of 2016, solar is expected to offset nearly 45 million metric tons of harmful carbon emissions, the equivalent of removing nearly 10 million cars off U.S. roads and highways, or shuttering 12 coal-fired plants. That’s a pretty impressive ‘high five’ for our environment.”

Resch said that it took 40 years for the U.S. to install its first 20 GW of solar, but the nation will add another 20 GW by the end of 2016. Here are some of the other projections from the latest SEIA/GTM Research report:

• 16 states will install more than 100 megawatts (MW) of solar in 2016. In 2010, only two states did.
• In 2016, California is expected to install as much solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity as the entire country did in 2014.
• The U.S. will surpass 1 million residential solar installations during the next two years.
• Solar will be close to generating 2 percent of America’s electricity needs by the end of 2016.  In 2010, solar represented just 0.1 percent of capacity.
• All solar market sectors – residential, non-residential and utility scale –are expected to grow by 25 to 50 percent over the next two years.

“Today, the U.S. solar industry employs 174,000 Americans nationwide – more than tech giants Apple, Google, Facebook and Twitter combined – and pumps nearly $18 billion a year into our economy,” Resch added. “This remarkable growth is due, in large part, to smart and effective public policies, such as the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC), Net Energy Metering (NEM) and Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS). By any measurement, these policies are paying huge dividends for both the U.S. economy, as well as for the environment. For our industry, this truly is an exciting and promising time to be celebrating Earth Day. As the old saying goes, ‘actions speak louder than words,’ and every new solar system that comes online today represents a win for the future of our planet.”


About SEIA®:

Celebrating its 41st anniversary in 2015, the Solar Energy Industries Association® is the national trade association of the U.S. solar energy industry. Through advocacy and education, SEIA® is building a strong solar industry to power America. As the voice of the industry, SEIA works with its 1,000 member companies to champion the use of clean, affordable solar in America by expanding markets, removing market barriers, strengthening the industry and educating the public on the benefits of solar energy. Visit SEIA online atwww.seia.org.

Media Contacts:

Ken Johnson, SEIA Vice President of Communications, kjohnson@seia.org 
Alex Hobson, SEIA Press Officer & Communications Manager, ahobson@seia.org 

The analysis, which utilized data from more than 7,600 businesses, also indicated the solar sector accounted for 1.3 percent of all U.S. jobs created over the past year, the nation's best for overall hiring since 1999.

Over the last five years, the group found solar industry employment grew by 86 percent, or nearly 80,000 living-wage jobs.

More than 30 percent of the current solar workforce, however, works in California, which surpassed the 50,000-employee threshold for the first time last year at 54,680 solar industry workers. The state gained nearly 7,500 solar jobs compared to 2013, a gain of about 16 percent.

Second-ranked Massachusetts trailed far behind California with 9,400, while Arizona ranked No. 3 at 9,170.

Neighboring Nevada saw an increase of 3,500 solar jobs last year compared to 2013, a 146 percent jump that led the nation over that span. Although its 5,900 solar jobs ranked No. 7, the increase saw Nevada top the nation in solar jobs as a percentage of its overall population.

Over the next 12 months, employers responding to the survey predicted another annual workforce increase in excess of 20 percent, projecting more than 210,000 workers in the solar industry nationwide in the next annual report.

A recent report from an energy consulting firm, meanwhile, predicted the American solar sector could be ready for a boom that mirrors the recent explosion in shale oil production, though it cautioned a dramatic increase in solar production could wreak havoc in the overall energy market.

By Michael Lauzon
Correspondent

Image By: California Academy of Science The retractable roof at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco uses Bayer's Makrolon polycarbonate.


Polycarbonate sheet meets the demands of a “living roof” in a retrofit at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

Bayer MaterialScience LLC says its Makrolon 15 sheet was selected for retractable panels over the academy’s atrium because it is lighter than glass and therefore needs fewer structural supports that are costly and impair aesthetics. The PC sheet replaced the original fabric screen roof system that failed to provide enough protection against weather.

Bayer, with its U.S. office in Pittsburgh, Pa., said another benefit is PC’s high resistance to breakage that would be a safety risk. Potential roof failure is an issue in the earthquake-prone region. Clarity, UV resistance and scratch resistance were other properties beneficial to this application, according to Bayer.

The retractable atrium roof comprises two sections measuring 18 feet by 48 feet. Each section consists of six panels supported by eight 66-foot long rectangular tubes that span the roof opening. The tubes arch up eight feet at the center of the roof. When closed, the roof’s two panels meet at the center of the arched tubes. An edge flap over the center provides a weather-tight seal.

The California Academy of Sciences is a scientific and educational institution with a wide range of exhibits and nearly 46 million scientific specimens from around the world. The academy’s building earned the highest rating, Platinum, from the U.S. Green Building Council in its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

The 'many reasons' homeowners go solar
“There are many reasons people will go solar, like environmental or energy security concerns, but we chose to look at these financial things because money is the one that gets people to act,” said co-author Autumn Proudlove. “Just talking money, solar is a good option for the average person right now.”

“Solar PV helps them lock in a set rate for a certain amount of their electricity for a long period of time,” Kennerly said. “By doing that, they save a great deal of money compared to what they would have paid in the future, given thatrates are going up.”

“Monthly electric bill savings are calculated as the difference between an average customer’s bill with solar and what the same customer’s bill would have been without solar,” the report explains. “The utilities whose customers see the greatest monthly dollar savings are Pacific Gas & Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, Arizona Public Service, and NSTAR.”

 “We are also seeing declines in the cost of solar. That really makes the financial case,” Proudlove added.  “And if you look at the soft costs, which are the biggest part of the cost of solar right now, if you can attack those and reduce them, it will make the value greater.”

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) put the 1998 median cost of residential solar at $12 per watt and the 2013 cost at $4.70 per watt, the researchers report. Data from the online solar marketplace EnergySage puts the Q3 2014 average cost without incentives at between $3.70 per watt and $4.24 per watt.