Cottage Grove, OR
2.88kW Grid Tied Solar w/ Battery Backup & Micro-Hydro System
No doubt one of our more challenging installs on all levels. After careful site evaluation we determined that the best site for solar, was 20 feet in the air adjacent one of the shops on this property outside of Cottage Grove. In order to make this site work, we had to re-engineer the structure to increase the shear strength in order to hold the schedule 80 8” steel pole the array sits atop. The owner built an equipment shed to house the Outback inverter/charging equipment and 8 AGM batteries adjacent the solar array.
This system also incorporates two 600 Watt ES&D microhydro turbines located in a hydro-house. PVC pipe feeds from a catchment located in the seasonal creek to the hydro house. From there, water passes through the turbines, then is fed back to the creek. Power from the turbines feeds wire ran in a conduit back to the electrical equipment shed. When the power goes down, the battery bank has dual source input, from the turbines and the solar array. The batteries feed a dedicated load center located in the house. This was easily one of the more complicated systems built and designed by Energy Design.
This project took several months to get through the county permitting process, since Lane County has no set process for dealing with a microhydro system. This project was a lesson zoning as well. Being zoned F-2 creates many more hurdles than you might expect.