What is the installation date?

In the next 2-3 weeks.

Hoping someone here can steer me in the right direction. At the moment I am trying to research information for a solar array that can power a pump that supplies the water for the orphanage in Peru that I am involved with. The entire orphanage is on solar (there is no grid electricity available) except for the huge generator that powers the well pump. Their current system would not handle the extra load. When I say huge, I do mean huge. 42hp and 32kwh. It sucks up about $1,000 a month in diesel fuel, a serious financial hardship for them.

I need to find someone who can calculate the solar panel system needed to replace the generator. This thing has to pump water 200 meters laterally before sending the water to a cistern that is at 50 meters higher elevation. I estimate that it is pumping about 45gpm as it takes about 4 to 4.5 hours daily to keep a 42,000 liter cistern full. The good part is that the area is a coastal desert, it never rains, very few days are mildly overcast and they get anywhere from 9 to 10 hours of solid sun per day and another few hours of indirect sun. Consistently 365 days a year. The other good thing is that such a system would pay for itself in short order in terms of fuel savings.

If anyone knows who I might contact that would be willing to take voluntarily a stab at calculating system requirements, I would be grateful.

you could try
http://www.wholesalesolar.com/complete-systems.html

actually its the batteries that would handle the 32kWH , Just realized your talking about the old 32 volt system with a transformer . I will leave this for an expert.....

Thanks for the link. Not sure what you mean about the 32 volt system. It's 220 off the generator, as far as I know.

Have sent you a pm. Has personal information hence not posting it here. Hope that helps

Got it. Thanks. Much appreciated.

Solar Irradiance levels vary greatly throughout Peru according to this:

http://www.energyrecipes.org/reports...s%20060209.pdf

This means calculating a system size would be difficult unless you can pin its location on the irradiance map on page 19.

When you say there is no grid, does this mean they currently have a solar PV setup with battery backup?

Sun wise, it is a coastal desert area, never rains and seldom a day that is overcast. Strong sun at least 10 hours a day. According to that chart it would be in the 6.5-7 range, but that figure for the area that it covers is not representative of every location, obviously. While Lima gets a lot of sun in the summer, in the winter it is often very overcast. We call it "the belly of the donkey" for the dark grey sky. Where the orphanage is, it is quite different and does not have the same overcast issues in the winter. Yes, the rest of the place in on a solar setup that supplies the rest of the facility with no difficulty. But it is not possible to handle the well pump which is on another piece of property about 1/2 km away as the crow flies. The pump is at a lower elevation than the orphanage.

well if the pump only draws 32kWh a day, the formula would be:

32kWh / 6.5 (irradiance coefficient) = 4.92kW

This would be assuming it is South facing, with ideal azimuth (approx 5 degrees I would imagine (needs to be same as line of lattitude))

This is not THE answer to your question, but should give you a rough guide as to what you should expect to be looking at.

Can definitely face it South with no problem, although would we not face it more North since we are South of the equator? Pretty open area. Latitude and longitude are 12"04'39.46S and 76"46'12.84W Appreciate the information.

Does anyone know what to expect in hardware improvements/innovations in the foreseeable future. Particularly Solar Panel output... IE: when will the standard rise from 190 Watts per panel ?

Or are there better smaller higher capacity panels on the horizon ?

I'd love to see closer to 300 watts per panel.

whoops, sorry yes. North facing. Was getting my hemispheres mixed up

it's mostly old or shitty cheap stuff when it is 190W these days. If you are looking at the latest stuff you should be looking at no less than 240W per panel. If the best you can get is 190W panels then you are looking at the cheap end of town

http://www.wholesalesolar.com/produc...CHSM6612P.html
http://www.wholesalesolar.com/produc...CHSM6612P.html

290 watts