Pitch, Azimuth, Shade, Technology & Access.

We were recently asked to comment on a system that had been proposed by another company by someone with an excellent ability to analyze financial data but little or no knowledge of what attributes affect the performance of a solar energy system. The person owned a chain of restaurants. The system was for their farm which supplies fresh herbs to their restaurants.

Rather than critiquing a proposal from the other company knowing that the system was too small for our company we simply provided some basic concepts in a manner that would be easy for the restaurant owner to remember. Each letter represents an attribute that needs to be optimized by your provider to ensure optimum life cycle performance.

1. “P”. Optimize the system pitch
2. “A”. Optimize the system azimuth
3. “S”. Mitigate shade; the system runs on sunshine
4. “T”. Select the right technology; a complex process
5. “A”. Ensure ease of access
   
   • a. To the generation components
   • b. For the resource charged with monitoring & maintenance