PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

Utility woes limit world's largest a-Si BIPV system in New York City

While a 213 kW demonstration project for New York City's NYC Transit will be the world's largest BIPV amorphous silicon installation when completed in mid-2003, it could have been almost three times as large.

	© NYC Transit
All aboard: RWE Solar will be supplying the partially-transparent a-Si modules for a 213 kW BIPV installation covering a train station in Coney Island.

Ajay Singh of NYC Transit says he had been pushing for a 600 kW system on the canopy of the Stillwell Avenue Terminal train station at Coney Island, but the local utility, ConEd, wouldn't allow all the energy to be fed to the grid. A 1997 law only allows net metering for residential PV systems below 10 kW. »Our biggest handicap up to now is that we can only go to a certain level because of the net metering issues,« says Singh. »ConEd isn't budging.«

Instead, NYC Transit has opted for a 213 kW BIPV system, using RWE Solar custom-designed modules, at a cost of about $4 million. Singh says harvested energy will be inverted to AC and used on site. The partially transparent glass laminate modules are a combination of clear glass and strips of thin-film amorphous silicon material. According to Markus Schmid, head of thin-film marketing and sales at RWE Solar's factory in Putzbrunn, Germany, this will allow 20 to 25 percent of the light through. The company had considered using its ASI THRU semitransparent modules on what was expected to be a 145 kW system. Schmid gave no reason for the change of plans. Work on the installation should start around the end of the year.

Another NYC Transit BIPV project using 100 kW of PV and a 200 kW fuel cell at the Grand Avenue bus depot and maintenance facility is set to go out for bids around the end of the year. Bidding on a similar project at the Corona Yard train maintenance facility is expected to finish in July. A contract for a 65 kW PV system on the roof of the Roosevelt Avenue station has already been awarded, says Singh; it should be completed in 2003. The NYC Transit PV projects are part of the US Environmental Protection Agency's Design of the Environment program.

Ajay Singh
ajsingh@nyct.com