Carrisa Plains photovoltaic power plant 1984-7 performance

Four years of performance data and one year of operation and maintenance (O&M) data from ARCO Solar´s Carrisa Plains PV plant are evaluated. The plant consists of 113968 ARCO Solar M52 modules mounted on 799 two-axis trackers. The inverters operate at 480 VAC which is stepped up to 12 kVAC and then to PG&Es 115 kV transmission voltage. The data show the plant to be a very reliable energy producer well matched to PG&E´s peak load requirements. System efficiency has been reduced by approximately 20% due to thermal oxidation of ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) caused by increased operating temperature in mirror-enhanced modules. Laboratory data indicate that this behavior may be reversible at normal module temperatures. Additionally, economic conditions do not favor mirror enhancement, thus reducing concern over degradation caused by its incorporation. O&M results show that, even for a prototype facility, very little human intervention is required.