Bergey Windpower Case Study

Brookline, Massachusetts, USA

 Clay Center for Science and Technology

The system consists of an integrated solar and wind generating system that is designed foremost as an educational resource and secondarily as a source of non-polluting, renewable energy for the Dexter and Southfield  campus.  The system is mounted on the 5th floor roof deck the Clay Center, behind the observatory.  This location provides good solar and wind exposure, accessibility to Dexter students, faculty, and guests for educational and demonstration purposes, and does not impinge on the architectural integrity of the Dexter-Southfield campus.

A 1000-watt Bergey XL.1 wind turbine is mounted on a 20-foot lattice tower at the north end of the Clay Science Center north deck. This turbine is currently connected to a 24-volt battery bank and a separate stand-alone 1000-watt inverter to transform its DC output to standard 120-volt AC current.  The solar array consists of eighteen rack-mounted photovoltaic modules made by ASE Americas of Billerica, MA.  The ASE 300 module is the largest and most powerful individual solar electric panel made in the world.  These modules form a 5.4 kilowatt (kW) solar electric array.

Click here to see a live image of the solar arrays and wind turbine on the north deck of the Clay Center.  The camera is mounted inside the Level 5 multipurpose room and faces northeast.  Kenmore Square and the Boston skyline are in the background.  The camera is refreshed every 10 seconds.

    

The system components have been configured to derive maximum educational use of the generating equipment.  Power coming from both the solar array and the wind turbine is monitored on a continuous basis to allow students to measure and track solar radiation, wind speed, power and energy output, and conversion efficiency of both solar and wind generators.

Direct current (DC) power from the solar array is transformed into utility-grade alternating current (AC) through inverters located on the fifth floor of the Clay Center.  The inverters are located behind glass panels so that visitors and students can see the inverters and other electronic devices.

 


The solar and wind energy system was designed and installed by
Solar Works, Inc. of Vermont.  The president of Solar Works is a graduate of Dexter School.  Data monitoring is provided by Heliotronics, of Hingham, Massachusetts, a leader in the design and development of educational electronics and software for the photovoltaic industry.  The Clay Center is pleased to be one of Heliotronics' case study sites.  In addition, data from the Clay Center’s weather station allows students to correlate system performance with the available wind and solar resource and ambient weather conditions.  The graph above shows a typical sunny day in March, 2003.

Further information on the system is available at the Clay Center web site, click here.