City of Corona Turns Bus Shelter into a Mini Power Plant

City of Corona today unveiled to the public its newly installed solar bus shelter providing comfort to its public transportation customers while being capable of generating clean, renewable energy through a roof ornamented with highly efficient solar panels. The installation marked the first grid-connected solar system for bus shelters.

The new bus shelter was designed and installed by Solade Concepts based in Corona, CA. The solar structure consists of products and solutions proposed by Go Green Solar, based in Los Angeles, CA, which include six SANYO HIT-210NKHA6 210-watt HIT Power® solar panels with six Enphase Energy M210-84-240-S12 micro inverters and a LED lighting solution in an on-grid solar system.

In major U.S. cities, bus stops can be found as often as every 650 to 950 feet, and often cities offer transit customers a sheltered waiting area that can vary in design and features. While solar powered bus shelters are not a new concept, the typical installation usually pairs the system to a battery that will store energy on site to provide the power needed to light the shelter at night. The concept introduced today, however, departs from the traditional "stand-alone" model, to an on-grid solar system that provides power back to the grid during the time when it is needed most, at the peak day-time hours when the sun is shining. The shelter doubles as both a place of shade for the transit customers, and as a mini power generation plant.

"The solar panels on top of Corona's bus shelter are grid-connected which means the energy is contributed to the grid when the power is needed the most, during peak hours." said Andrew Ferrick, President of Solade Concepts, a manufacturer of solar structures. Ferrick also noted, "The meter will spin backwards during daylight hours, offsetting the City of Corona's electric bill for its traffic signals and streetlights."

"The grid-tie solar bus shelter is a perfect example of micro-generation. The solar technology available today combined with structures which exist in our environment have the potential to be mini distributed solar power plants with the combined potential to contribute megawatts of power back to our grid." said Deep Patel, Founder & CEO of GoGreenSolar.com, a supplier of green energy products. Patel was responsible for the solar equipment used in the Corona Solar Bus Shelter, and focused on the use of cutting-edge technology from SANYO and Enphase Energy to maximize the potential output from the limited amount of space.

"Integrating a grid-tie solar system into a bus shelter was challenging because of the limited space we had to work with" said Patel. Go Green Solar selected the SANYO HIT Power® solar panels because they generate the most watts per installed square foot compared to any other solar panel on the market. Patel added, "Using a central inverter was not an option, and so this was a perfect project to highlight the benefits of the Enphase Energy Micro Inverters." Each SANYO HIT Power® solar panel is paired up with an Enphase Energy M210 micro inverter converting the DC power produced by the solar panels into grid compliant AC power.

The LED tube light installed within the solar bus shelter is used to illuminate the structure in darker hours and consumes a mere 15 watts of power, half the power consumption compared to a florescent tube light. LED lighting uses less energy, and allows the solar bus shelter to export more energy to the grid during the day than used for lighting only at night. "Bus Shelters are becoming an asset to cities as they harness solar energy and the efficiencies of LED lighting to provide a way to not only eliminate electric bills to the bus shelters, but provide excess power to other on-grid applications during the critical hours of the day for the grid," said Patel.

Since the solar bus shelter installed in Corona is on-grid and produces over 1 kilowatt of AC solar power, it may qualify for utility cash rebates and the 30% federal renewable energy tax credit. The solar bus shelter is expected to generate 1,748 kilowatt-hours on an annual basis. Customers of solar on-grid bus shelters are not limited to municipalities. Often, bus shelters are owned by transit agencies or private advertisement companies.

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About City of Corona

The City of Corona is located approximately 45 miles southeast of Los Angeles in western Riverside County. The City limits encompass 39.2 square miles and the population is approximately 147,428. A city whose heritage spans more than a century, Corona has emerged as an ethnically diverse community, where a significant percentage of the population is made up of young, well educated families. The Corona community boasts many amenities that provide a first-rate quality of life for residents. More than 82,000 people work in the city. Corona has more than 30 million square feet of industrial space and more than 3 million square feet of office space existing, under construction, or planned.

About Solade Concepts

Solade Concepts has become one of the nation's top solar shade structure companies by incorporating over 30 years of Design, Engineering, Fabrication, Construction, Electrical Contracting, & Installations. We are successfully changing the perception of solar structure integration with our products and are committed to offering energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions through multi-functional solar structures. By taking solar and incorporating it into our solar shade structures, we have allowed solar to become user friendly at the ground level.

About GoGreenSolar.com

GoGreenSolar.com is a value added supplier of green energy products, services, technical support and financing to get your projects done. The company's customers include contractors, electricians, energy consultants, home builders, architects, publicly traded corporations and general consumers. Our company carries the highest quality products from reputable manufacturers including: Kaco New Energy, Sanyo, EarthLED, Xantrex, Kaneka, Southwest WindPower, Fronius, Enphase Energy, SMA, Heliodyne, Morningstar, Outback, Energy, Inc,General Electric, Concorde,SolarWorld, Kyocera, Canadian Solar, Sharp Solar and many of the top brands in the green energy industry. GoGreenSolar.com helps customers get started with green energy.

About SANYO

SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. is a global, leading provider of energy, environment and lifestyle applications. Energy System Solutions, a division of SANYO North America Corporation, is headquartered in San Jose, California, and handles sales and services for SANYO energy solutions including solar panels and rechargeable batteries. For further information, please visit SANYO's web site at http://us.sanyo.com/.

About Enphase

Enphase Energy provides solar energy management systems for residential and commercial markets. The company offers a system that includes high efficiency microinverters, communications and Web-based monitoring and analysis. The systems increase energy harvest, improve system reliability and simplify design, installation and management. Founded in 2006 and based in Northern California, the company is led by veterans from the solar and high-tech industries and backed by industry leaders. For more information about Enphase, please visit http://www.enphaseenergy.com.