Solar developers need land for utility-scale and community solar projects. But what are those? For that matter, what are residential and commercial solar projects? There are four general types of solar projects.
Contact us to discuss your requirements of what is c&i energy. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.
&#;Residential solar&#; means solar panels to power a single house. The panels are typically mounted on a homeowner&#;s roof, but could also be mounted in the backyard (this is called a &#;ground-mount array&#;) or on the roof of another structure on the property, such as a detached garage, carport or shed. A residential solar array typically consists of anywhere from eight to 20 panels.
&#;Commercial solar&#; is simply solar for a commercial business. The business could be as small as a gas station or as big as a manufacturing facility or the headquarters of a multinational corporation and involve a dozen panels or several thousand panels. As with residential solar, panels are typically mounted on the roof of commercial buildings but could also be mounted on the ground adjacent to or nearby the facility.
With both residential and commercial solar, the panels are mounted on the property of the homeowner or business and supply power only to the home or business.
A &#;utility-scale solar&#; project is a typically a very large array comprising hundreds or even hundreds of thousands of panels. The power generated by a utility-scale project is purchased either by:
A utility, municipality (if the electric utility is owned by a city), or an electric cooperative (in more rural areas) to serve both residential and commercial customers in their service area
A corporation to power its needs in a particular region
One or more large universities or other institutions in the same area that pool together to buy electricity
For more information, please visit lifepo4 battery energy storage system supplier.
&#;Community solar&#; is something of a hybrid. Community solar is a solution for consumers who want to obtain their power from solar energy but cannot install an array on their house because, for example, they live in an apartment, or because their roof does not face south. In response, some utilities offer their customers a community solar option. The utility builds a utility-scale array sized to meet the power needs of interested customers, then offers those customers special pricing and contract structures to obtain their power from that array. In essence, community solar projects are small utility-scale projects developed for a specific reason, with the power they generate sold in a unique business model.
Utility-scale and community solar projects can be of any size. There is no absolute definition of how large they must be in terms of megawatts (MWs). Community solar projects typically range from 0.5-20 MWac in size, whereas the kind of utility-scale projects utilities or large corporations typically buy range from 25 MWac all the way up to 1,000 MWac (one gigawatt, or 1 GW).
Because virtually no rooftops are large enough to accommodate the number of panels required in any utility-scale or community solar array, these projects must be mounted on the ground&#;and that requires a lot of land. That&#;s where landowners come in.
The solar industry is split into three primary sectors: utility scale and community solar that power an entire area&#;s homes and businesses; residential solar projects that power a single home; and commercial and industrial (C&I) solar projects that provide clean, reliable electricity to businesses of all shapes and sizes.
Commissioned by your local electric provider, utility scale solar projects are the largest in terms of the amount of electricity generated. These large ground mounted &#;solar farms&#; generate at least 1 megawatt (MW) and often range into the hundreds of megawatts.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are projects for the residential solar sector, where installations range between 3 and 20 kilowatts (kW), depending on the size and energy needs of the home.
Nestled right in the middle is the C&I sector. C&I solar customers include large corporations like Apple, Target, and Amazon, as well as a growing number of local businesses, non-profits, schools and universities, religious institutions, local government agencies, and municipalities. The C&I solar sector is the focus of this article.
Are you interested in learning more about lifepo4 battery energy storage system suplier? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!