Sean White‘s Solar and Energy Storage Podcast

Some of the areas of the NEC that we cover in this podcast are: Ground Fault Protection, Ground Fault Detection and interruption (GFDI) term clarified (not to be confused with GFCI), 690.45 Equipment Grounding Conductors (EGC) includes DC and AC not having to increase size of EGC when upsizing current carrying conductor for voltage drop (now also applies to AC PV and modifies NEC 250.122), 250.122 EGC sized based on OCPD, Microgrid Interconnect Device (MID), Interactive Mode vs. Voltage Mode, putting multiple inverters prior to the first OCPD, 705.13 Power Control Systems (PCS) was changed to Energy Management Systems (EMS), EMS was previously just for loads, Tesla Powerwall, PCS is not the part of the EMS that is controlling sources, Batteries as Source and Load, EVs Article 625, and more! Quotes: Bill Brooks (soon to be famous quotes). “Changes in size for voltage drop do not have to increase the size of the equipment grounding conductor” “It’s penalizing you for doing the right thing” Bill on 250.122 upsizing the EGC for voltage drop." “All we’ve done is we’ve taken the microgrid interconnect device and stuck it inside the inverter” Bill on multimode inverter with 2 AC outputs." “We could have a system that was 50kW going into a 100A service.” “We have large systems right now, that have a 5MW interconnection that have a 30 PV array on them.” “You can run a 400A feed to a large EV charging area, you can put 20 cars on it.” “The controller would never allow you to draw more than 400A.” “You have a controller that prevents the conductors from receiving too much current.” “At the end of the day, the NEC is all about safety. It’s all about, we do not burn buildings down with correctly installed electrical equipment.” This is a recording of part of an NEC workshop at the Intersolar 2022 conference at the Long Beach California Convention Center in January 2022. The workshop was titled: Energy Storage, PV and the NEC. Bill Brooks is instrumental in the process of coming up with material for the NEC for renewable energy systems, especially for solar, energy storage and interconnections. Although the 2023 NEC has not been finalized or published, this is as good of a preview as you can get for knowing what the future will bring. Many manufacturers, engineers, CEOs and other decisionmakers can make better informed decisions about the future, knowing what will be in the National Electrical Code. Bill Brooks is on NEC Code Making Panel 4 (the alternative energy panel) and has been perhaps the most active member of the PV Industry Forum, which is where new material for the NEC for Solar PV, Energy Storage and Interconnections are made. Bill has been working on Codes and Standards for 34 years. Bill Brooks and Sean White also published the book PV and the NEC. Note: This podcast was recorded on an iPhone 13 and to my surprise the recording quality was way better than expected, so we decided to podcast it! WARNING: Bill Brooks and Sean White sometimes think they are funny. If you disagree with this and do not like dad jokes, do not listen to this podcast.

Bill Brooks is instrumental in the process of coming up with material for the NEC for renewable energy systems, especially for solar, energy storage and interconnections. Although the 2023 NEC has not been finalized or published, this is as good of a preview as you can get for knowing what the future will bring. Many manufacturers, engineers, CEOs and other decisionmakers can make better informed decisions about the future, knowing what will be in the National Electrical Code. Bill Brooks is on NEC Code Making Panel 4 (the alternative energy panel) and has been perhaps the most active member of the PV Industry Forum, which is where new material for the NEC for Solar PV, Energy Storage and Interconnections are made. Bill has been working on Codes and Standards for 34 years. Bill Brooks and Sean White also published the book PV and the NEC. Some of the areas of the NEC that we cover in this podcast are: NEC Article 100 Definitions. All definitions moving to article 100 (no more 690.2 definitions), Electronic Power Converter, Electronic Transformer, Inverter Definition, PV Hazard Control UL 3741, Rapid Shutdown, 690.4, 690.12, NEC 750 Energy Management Systems (EMS), NEC 705.13 Power Control Systems (PCS), Net-Metering 3.0 Protest, NEC 712 DC Microgrids removed from the NEC and you use 705, PV String Circuits (strings now in NEC for first time), PV Output Circuit removed, PV System Output Circuit, Recombiner (Bill is not fond of this term), Paralleling Circuits in Harnesses, First Solar Modules, 2023 NEC PV Source Circuits go into and out of DC Combiner, String Circuit is series only (not parallel), DC-to-DC Converter Circuit, Wild PV, PV System Disconnect, 690.15 reorganized, Locking Requirements, Ground Fault Protection, Ground Fault Detection and interruption (GFDI) term clarified (not to be confused with GFCI), 690.45 Equipment Grounding Conductors (EGC) includes DC and AC not having to increase size of EGC when upsizing current carrying conductor for voltage drop (now also applies to AC). Quotes: Bill Brooks (soon to be famous quotes). “When you see a change in the Code, it does not mean that the requirements change.” “90% of changes in the Code are not changes in requirements” “We will never make a Code that will be clear to everyone” “Codes are using text to convey fairly complex concepts to the public” “Energy Management Systems (EMS) was unified with other parts of the Code” “NEC Code Making Panel 4 is referred to now as the alternative energy panel” “They’re putting maintenance requirements into a construction code” “We got PV string circuits into the NEC” “SolarEdge can put 100 PV modules on a Circuit” This is a recording of part of an NEC workshop at the Intersolar 2022 conference at the Long Beach California Convention Center in January 2022. The workshop was titled: Energy Storage, PV and the NEC. Note: This podcast was recorded on an iPhone 13 and to my surprise the recording quality was way better than expected, so we decided to podcast it! WARNING: Bill Brooks and Sean White sometimes think they are funny. If you disagree with this and do not like dad jokes, do not listen to this podcast.

Keith Cronin: Solar MBA instructor on HeatSpring! Keith sold his Hawaii solar company Island Energy Solutions to Jigar Shaw of SunEdison in 2007 after knowing Jigar since 2002. Keith has been teaching his Solar MBA class for just over a decade with co-instructor and attorney Chris Lord. They have taught many students, including oil and gas refugees. Keith Cronin does consulting via his company Sun Hedge with clients all over the world, including the Department of Defense. He has lived in many different countries throughout his solar career. Listening to this podcast will give you insight into the process for developing large solar projects and systems to run your growing business. Final wise words from Keith Cronin: Fail more quickly Stumble ahead Don’t be afraid Ask questions Learn from others and you’ll be glad you did! Click here to find out more about Keith Cronin’s classes! Make sure to stop by www.SolarSEAN.com for a life altering experience! Knowledge is power and power times time is energy!

Welcome to 2022, the year of the Terawatt! That's right, this year will cross the trillion watt mark! 2022 will be remembered as the year that humanity reached the magic number of 1 trillion watts, aka 1 terawatt or 1TW of solar installed since the beginning of time. We do not have to take into consideration the amount of solar taken out of service, since that is so low, it probably will be replaced in less than a month, so that means we will hit the milestone of installed 1TW since 1 million BC and we will also have 1TW that is installed and working every day. 1TW = 1000GW = a million megawatts! According to a July 2021 article titles "Solar continues to break installation records, on track for Terawatt scale by 2022" by Solar Power Europe, Earth will hit 900 GW in 2021, 1.1 TW in 2022, 1.3 TW in 2023, 1.6 TW in 2023, and 1.8 TW in 2025. At a world population of 7.9 Billion, we are close to hitting another milestone too. To put a trillion watts into context, the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl was 1GW, so the power output of 1000 Chernobyls is about equal to the power output of solar on Earth sometime in 2022. There are a little over 2TW of coal plants operating in the world right now, so we are not there yet. I also do not want to fool you and have to mention that coal and nuclear do work at night, so we need more solar to make up for that, along with energy storage and high voltage DC lines across time zones, which is more easily engineered physically than politically. Can you imagine Middle America allowing the East and West Coasts sharing daylight electricity via power lines through their states? Perhaps we will have to stick to energy storage right now. I once saw a presentation by Dr. Shi who was the founder of Suntech in China, where he pointed out that we could have high voltage dc (HVDC) power lines that circle the globe. The pathway would be from South Africa, up to Eurasia and then across the Bering Straits to Alaska and down to Argentina. Once climate change hits, perhaps we can also have an HVDC extension to the green pastures of Antartica! To put HVDC into context and using 1 million volts as an example, we would be able to carry a MW with 1 Amp! We would be able to carry a GW, which is all of the power that Chernobyl could produce with 1000A. There are many homes that are wired for 100A and many buildings that are wired for well over 1000A. Depending on your source, the largest PV project in the world is about 1GW, so now putting that into wire sizing terms, you can easily transport a GW using wire tables in the NEC (utilities do not have to follow the NEC and can size their wires smaller). The reason that HVDC is the perfect way to carry large amounts of power over long distances, is because Voltage x Current = Power, so with high voltage, you need much less current for the same amount of power and current is what heats up a wire, not voltage. The reason that we do not use high voltage in our houses is because high voltage is sparky. Go to www.SolarSEAN.com to find out more!

In this question we have the following questions and answers: 1. Net metering: Why it is different in different places whether or not you can and should feed energy back to the grid when you have an excess. 2. How bypass diodes work and also with half-cell PV modules. 3. Why solar goes so well with energy storage systems (ESS). 4. National Electrical Code (NEC) articles 480 Storage Batteries vs. 706 Energy Storage Systems and why you should use 706 For more info, go to www.solarSEAN.com

Sean White (solarSEAN.com) is interviewed on his former student Cory Vanderpool's podcast. The talk about various subjects including: Solar and wind are finally cheapest forms of electricity EVs bringing down the cost of lithium-ion Energy Storage Systems (ESS) Battery benefits including being a load, besides being a source of power Wind power’s cubed relationship to wind speed Frequency regulation is the biggest use for energy storage right now Negative energy pricing in Germany Ramp rates of energy storage beating all other forms of energy by a long shot, especially underground mined resources (fossil fuels and nuclear) EV to grid future LG Batteries in cars vs. home ESS price being the same Lithium-ion graphite anodes, silicon anodes, lithium metal anode, specific energy (energy per weight), dendrites, energy density (energy per volume) Sean’s $0.20 to $0.40 per kWh battery price prediction in 10-years Soldering home-made lithium-ion battery packs Battery cells, battery modules, battery packs definition Buying houses with pre-existing solar, real estate with solar, and knowing how to value them, solar valuation, solar asset value, solar offset value (offsetting electricity) You can see Cory’s podcast home page at: https://sparkcertified.mykajabi.com/podcasts/solar-broadcast Cory’s webpage: www.SparkPros.com Twitter www.twitter.com/acoryvanderpool LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-vanderpool-85bb764a/ Michael Ginsburg’s book: https://www.amazon.com/Solar-Photovoltaic-Power-Optimization-Verification-ebook/dp/B07YQ9D7V2 Sean White's classes, books and everything else: www.solarSEAN.com

In this podcast we answer 2 questions: 1) Grounding is important and can be confusing with many different theories of how and why it should be done. Here we are going to talk about the basics, including the neutral (grounded conductor), the equipment grounding conductor (EGC) and the grounding electrode conductor (GEC). We will even make a mention of SWER (single wire earth return), which means using 1 wire for transmission and using the Earth as a conductor! Here is a link about that last part, so you don’t think I am making it up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-wire_earth_return 2) Batteries were once always included with PV systems and not as the grid has more intermittent renewables, batteries are making a comeback. We will discuss energy storage, off grid PV systems in Haines Alaska’s Mud Bay and microhydro for generating electricity. 3) Monocrystalline PV has taken over the number 1 spot from polycrystalline silicon solar cells in the last few years. We will discuss the differences of how these solar cells are made and how they look. To find out more about solar and storage, go to www.solarSEAN.com

This podcast answers 3 questions on solar and storage. 1) EV to home can mean EV to grid and EV to backup. Ford has announced that their F-150 Lightning Electric Pickup will be released next year and will have the ability to backup a house. What does that mean? Will it be able to work with a PV system and keep the battery charged or will it only work as long as the battery is charged? Will it be able to send electricity to the grid? 2) Now that there are a tremendous amount of lithium-ion batteries being manufactured, what will happen at the end of their lives? Fortunately, lithium-ion battery materials are not very toxic, unlike lead-acid batteries. Just like with solar modules, if we accidentally throw the materials in the trash, it will not be a toxicity issue, just a waste issue. Lithium-ion batteries will get recycled and the most important aspect of this is the need for cobalt, since much of the cobalt comes from the Congo, where child labor is often used. 3) The average efficiency of PV being installed these days hovers somewhere under 20% and the super high efficiency that people buy for some rich people's homes can be 22% efficient. It is interesting that for space applications, you can see up to 40% efficient PV, which has to be super-efficient! Even the richest guy in the world (Elon Musk) thinks gallium arsenide PV is expensive for space and has mentioned that he is using some crystalline silicon PV on some satellites. To find out more about gallium arsenide space solar cells, go to https://www.spectrolab.com/photovoltaics.html and make sure you have a few million bitcoin on your credit card (joke). To find out more about solar and storage, go to www.solarSEAN.com

This is an audio version of the workshop that Sean White taught at the ASES conference at the University of Colorado Boulder on August 6, 2021. To see a video version, go to www.solarSEAN.com for a link to Sean's YouTube channel or find some of this material in Sean's classes at www.HeatSpring.com/sean You can also find most of the material form Sean's Intensive PV workshop at the ASES conference, which was covered in the last podcast listed on HeatSpring for 2 hours of free NABCEP CE credit at https://www.heatspring.com/courses/introduction-to-solar-pv-design-installation-and-code?aff_id=t3nlgw Here is the description of the workshop straight from the ASES.org website: This workshop will be jam-packed with NEC insight and interpretation. Sean White teaches PV courses around the world and has authored many technical PV books. Solar Photovoltaic Basics 2nd Ed., Energy Storage Basics, Solar PV Engineering and Installation 2nd Ed., Solar PV Technical Sales and PV and the NEC 2nd Ed. Sean will fill you up with as much information as possible in the time given, while entertaining you. This year Sean will focus more on Energy Storage Systems (ESS) than he has in the past. Did you know that the NEC allows us to backfeed your house with electric vehicles (EVs) and that it is just the EV manufacturers holding us back? Be ready for when EV manufacturers let us do what they already should have. This course will count for NABCEP continuing education requirements in every category and will also count for prerequisites for NABCEP Certification. This course will also include a $200 discount for Sean’s advanced online PV classes. A printable color digital certificate included with course, along with .pdf files of the presentation. Your instructor is based in the US and teaches classes internationally. His resume can be seen here www.maximumpowerpointtraining.com Be sure to check out next year's ASES conference in Albuquerque New Mexico on June 20-24 ases.org/conference see you there! go to www.solarSEAN.com

This podcast is a recording of a workshop Sean taught at the ASES Solar 2021 Conference at the University of Colorado Boulder on August 6, 2021. This Solar PV Intensive Workshop was fast paced and covered a lot of information. This workshop was in a way covering the same material Sean covers in his Solar PV Boot Camps, which are often 40 hours long in a quick 1.5 hours. There are slides and if you want to see the video version, you will be able to see it at Sean's Youtube channel. Here is the Youtube link for this video. Topics covered include, Energy Storage Systems (ESS), PV Markets To find out more about solar and energy storage or classes with Sean White and Bill Brooks, go to www.solarSEAN.com

Hawaii has more solar PV per capita than any other state. Since PV is the least expensive energy in the world now, this concentration of PV will soon hit other states and Hawaii is paving the way with new policies that will be able to deal with this abundance of noontime energy. California, which has a lot more people and by for more solar than any other state is also dealing with this abundance. In this podcast, we will discuss one of Hawaii’s policies put in place to deal with the possibility of producing more energy than the grid needs, but still letting people export to the grid. The policy we are covering is called Customer Grid Supply Plus (CGS+). Get ready for these new types of policies to come to you. We will also discuss energy storage, and a student review of one of our free classes for 2 hours of NABCEP credit that I do with Bill Brooks where we sadly get accused of being "too funny". To find out more and to take some of my not-boring classes, go to www.solarSEAN.com

In this podcast, Sean answers 3 questions and then we finish it off with some wise words from Bill Brooks where Bill and Sean discus the purpose of NFPA 855 Standard For The Installation Of Stationary Energy Storage Systems. To find out more about solar and energy storage or classes with Sean White and Bill Brooks, go to www.solarSEAN.com

In this podcast, Sean answers questions about net-metering sustainability, with examples from the most mature PV markets in the US, Hawaii and California and how energy storage solves problems when intermittent renewables are on the grid. There were some changes in the 2017 NEC, where the requirement to have a temperature adder with conduit in sunlight over a roof were removed, making wire sizing simpler, although wire sizing is arguably the most difficult part of designing a PV system. Our last topic here has to do with the optimal way to face your PV, given the restrictions of having an east-west facing rooftop. As Jim Morrisoin says, "West is the best!" To find out more, go to solarSEAN.com

In this podcast we once again cover questions from you and those like you by popular demand. We will get into the different terminology and how it changed in different versions of the NEC, when we talk about ungrounded, grounded and functionally grounded inverters. We talk about the correct terminology for combining batteries in parallel and differentiate between community solar and community choice aggregation among other things. To find out more about renewable energy, go to solarSEAN.com

In this episode, we cover tilting PV modules, and seasonal tilting, why most PV modules at 60 cell and 72 cell modules, net-metering and energy storage. To find out more about solar and energy storage or to ace any NABCEP exam, go to solarSEAN.com

In this podcast, we are going answer questions related to solar and energy storage. The first question is about NABCEP and how they are going about adopting the latest version of the NEC. The next question is about higher power PV modules and are they bigger and more dangerous to install. The last question is about how to deal with and what to do about the possibility of manufacturers going out of business. To find out more about Solar and Energy Storage Systems (ESS) go to solarSEAN.com

In this podcast we talk about the new UL standard for PV, which replaces UL 1703 for PV with UL 61730, which took place in December of 2020. You can still use UL 1703, just if you come out with a new module design, it needs to comply with UL 61730, which makes things easier, since it is the same test around the world, instead of having a different test for the US and Europe for instance. We also talk about the new UL 3741 PV Hazard Control Standard, aka the Rapid Shutdown standard, which is another way of complying with 690.12 in the 2020 NEC, so you can perhaps have up to 3 modules in series after shutdown now. Mid Circuit Interrupters (MCI) on every third module maybe all you need for rapid shutdown as long as it is a UL 3741 listed solution. This is big news and a new way to deal with rapid shutdown. An MCI is likely to be a switch that does not do maximum power point tracking (MPPT), or you can have a dc-to-dc converter (optimizer) that does MPPT on a group of 3 PV modules. To learn more about energy storage, solar, the building codes, the NEC and everything else, go to www.solarsean.com

In this podcast we cover the requirements of the International Fire Code and Energy Storage Systems and sizes of these Energy Storage Systems in the International Fire Code. There are special size requirements as we will learn soon. We were primarily covering the 2018 IFC, the 2021 IFC does not come out yet as of this podcast and even when it does come out it doesn't mean that it’s get adopted right away in your state and so the different sizes of the Energy Storage Systems that we're going to talk about cover from larger than one- and two-family dwellings up to large utility scale systems. Can you get bigger than the utility scale not that I know about, but I'd be interested in your crazy comments? Did you know that ventilation is not required for valve regulated lead acid batteries? That's right ventilation is not required for valve regulated lead acid batteries and you know that now. And also, did you know that the International Fire Code does not apply when you were applying the IRC that's the International Residential Code? And that's for one- and two-family dwellings so the International Fire Code is not supposed to be implemented for one- and two-family dwellings! Look at all this learning that we can do. To learn more about energy storage, solar, the building codes, the NEC and everything else, go to www.solarsean.com

In this podcast we cover the 2021 IRC has not been published yet and which Bill is helping write. We also discuss the relationship with the International Fire Code (IFC) and the International Building Code (IBC). The IRC, IBC and IFC are published by the International Code Council (ICC). Some of the subjects we cover are vehicle impact protection for Energy Storage Systems (ESS), parking bollards, parking curbs, installation locations, not installed in habitable rooms, habitable room definitions, sheet rock (5/8" gypsum requirements) in relation to ESS which are non-combustible wall requirements, ESS in relationship to garage windows vs. bedroom windows, kWh maximum size per area, 80kWh house maximum, Section 1206.1-1206.9 of IFC, Fire detection, Smoke alarms, California Residential Code (CRC), which copies the IRC, stand-by power, and more! To learn more about energy storage, solar, the building codes, the NEC and everything else, go to www.solarsean.com

In this podcast Bill Brooks covers the International Residential Code from the International Code Council (ICC), which are rules in addition to the NEC for installing ESSs in 1- and 2-family dwellings. Bill Brooks is instrumental in writing the material that we cover and sits on many different panels, such as the UL 9540 standards technical panel, and comes up with the rules. Stay tuned for another podcast where we will cover the International Building Code (IBC) and the International Fire Code (IFC), which are used for other than 1- and 2-family dwellings. We cover here: UL 9540 (umbrella standard), UL 1973, UL 1741, 2018 IRC, 2021 IRC, 2024 IRC insight, LG Chem Battery, Tesla Powerwall, SolarEdge, SMA, BYD, Enphase, Sonnen, Inverters and sub-assemblies, lithium-ion and lead-acid battery preferred applications, using retired EVs to power your house according to the 2018 IRC, NEC 625 Bidirectional EV charging/discharging, battery locations, habitable locations, ventilation, hydrogen and flammable gasses, protection from impact, vehicle approved barriers, parking bollards, parking curbs, and more! Although this podcast's focus is on residential ESS, we do mention some Utility-Scale ESS relationships with UL 9540. To learn more about solar and energy storage, go to www.solarSEAN.com where we have NABCEP classes and all kinds of learning materials.

Building Integrated PV (BIPV) has been around forever as far as the solar industry is concerned (4 or 5 decades). It has never taken off like people think. There has always been a lot of hype around BIPV, especially amongst laypeople. Will Tesla change BIPV forever? I would think not, except I will never underestimate a guy that turned a small EV company into the world's most valuable automaker, lands reusable rockets routinely, and can make non-human primates play video games with their thoughts, all things which were considered impossible. For more information and education on solar and storage, go to www.solarSEAN.com !

In this podcast we are going to go over NEC 706 with Bill Brooks, thy guy who wrote a lot of this material and was there every step of the way. Sometimes Bill does not agree with what ends up in the NEC and he will let you know it here first on this podcast. To have fun and learn more about solar and storage, go to SolarSEAN.com

We are going to cover short circuit current rating of equipment with Bill Brooks. Bill Brooks has been in the solar industry for many decades and knows everything about solar and energy storage. He writes the codes, he does consulting, he's a busy guy and here he is on this podcast. To have fun and learn more about solar and storage, go to SolarSEAN.com

In this episode, we are going to present a particular rumoured certification exam question and then get into the details of how you may install large central inverters with grounding electrode conductors. This is an advanced topic, but if you are a beginner, you can still be amazed at how these huge multi-million dollar PV systems are put together. To have fun and to learn more about solar and storage, go to SolarSEAN.com

Solar PV shading can be worse than you think, since solar cells are connected in series. We will cover the Solmetric Suneye shading device, (note that Vivant Solar was bought by Sunrun since the recording of this podcast), we will cover some software that can digest shading information, such as Aurora Solar, Helioscope, Energy Toolbase, PVsyst, Albedo, Sketchup, Skelion, PVCAD, AutoCAD, and more. Then we talk about single-axis trackers, concentrated PV, seasonal tilting, concentrating PV, seasonal tilt and many more angles.

In this episode, we are going to cover, air mass, global solar radiation, direct solar radiation, albedo solar radiation, diffuse solar radiation, bifacial solar, pyranometers, pyrheliometers and the solar constant. To have fun and to learn more about solar and storage, go to SolarSEAN.com

This podcast covers the effects of temperature and irradiance on PV voltage and current and all different kinds of azimuth, which is what a compass reads. Did you know that the magnetic North Pole is moving from Canada to Russia? To have fun and to learn more about solar and storage, go to SolarSEAN.com

When light comes from the closest star (the sun), it will give us solar power and solar energy. We are going to talk about the difference and how to quantify irradiance and irradiation. We also get into solar insolation, tilt angles, peak sun hours in different locations including Germany, the home of Hermann Scheer who kicked off the solar revolution! To have fun and to learn more about solar and storage, go to SolarSEAN.com

Energy comes in many forms. From kWhs, to Joules, to cheeseburgers, to a gallon of gas, see how you can convert these different energy containing forms. We also will get into the speed of electricity, Ohm’s law, Horsepower, the NABCEP PVA exam and PV module level rapid shutdown for PV systems on buildings. To have fun and to learn more about solar and storage, go to SolarSEAN.com

Many people in the solar and storage industry do not know much about electricity and now is the time to have fun and learn. In this episode, we will introduce you to people with names like Volta, Ampere and Ohm, get ready to power your brain cells with all of that stored energy from last nights tacos. This podcast includes both basic and advanced material and this episode is on the basic side. If you are advanced, you still can learn something, such as how to explain things to normal people. To have fun and to learn more about solar and storage, go to SolarSEAN.com

One of the most difficult things to do with the NEC, is to understand how to use it to properly size wires. You can get 10 of the top experts in the world in a room and if you talk about how to properly size a wire, you can be sure there will be exciting conversations (disagreements). The best article I ever read on the subject was in the now retired SolarPro Magazine, where you can still access old articles at www.solarprofessional.com. May SolarPro someday be resurrected! Wire sizing is very uniform throughout the NEC, so if you truly understand this article, you will be able to wire size about anything, including an energy storage system or a circuit to an air conditioner on the roof. As I read this article that is based on the 2011 NEC, I make comments and update how to comply with the 2020 NEC. A few differences are that we no longer have 1A fuse increments below 15A (we skip from 10A to 15A now) and we no longer derate for conduit in sunlight on a rooftop. Warning: This information is difficult, so do not expect to understand it in a day. You are welcome to skip this podcast, or you can do what I did when I first read NEC Article 690. I did not understand it, but got familiar with it and the terminology and after reading it 1000 times or so, I wrote some books on it. To find out more about solar and storage, checkout www.SolarSEAN.com !

The most misunderstood PV label (“terminals on line and load side may be energized in the open position”), DC and AC disconnects, Capacitors, PV is on when the Sun is up, Pocket Voltage Indicator, Hot Stick Voltage Detectors (only work with alternating current), Lockout Tagout (LOTO), Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), 6-feet = Fall Protection, Guardrail Fall Protection, Safety Net Fall Protection, Personal Fall Arrest Systems (PFAS), Anchor, Harness, Lifeline, Shock Absorbing Lanyard, Ladders Safety, Fiberglass vs. Aluminum Ladders, Working Around Power Lines, 3 points of contact, Tool Backpack, Yoyo (self-retracting lifeline) and Sun Exposure!

NEC, too much current on a wire, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) for employees, NFPA, Battery Bank Locations, AHJ (Authority Having Jurisdiction), NABCEP, Hydrogen and Ventilation with Lead-Acid Batteries, Guarding Live Parts, Working Spaces NEC 110.26, Panelboards, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Fall Protection, Arc-Flash Protection, Skylights, Ergonomics, Staging, Preventing Lumbar Disc Injuries, Volt Meter Testing, First Aid Kits and Eye Wash Stations.

AC-Modules, Direct PV Systems, Water Pumping with PV, Self-Regulating PV, Hybrid PV Systems vs. Hybrid Inverters, Solar Living Institute (RIP), Pumped Hydro Storage, Utility Scale Solar Farms, Large Scale PV Electric Supply Stations (NEC 691), PV Feed-in-Tariff’s, NexTracker Single Axis Trackers, Distributed Generation (DG), NABCEP, Community Solar, Community Choice Aggregation (CCAs), SEIA Houses per MW, 6kW per house average, Energy Efficiency, Resistance Heater 100% efficiency vs. Heat Pumps that are 3x better than 100%, Spectrolab Space Solar.

Utility Interactive PV Systems, Direct Current, Alternating Current, 5-minute UL 1741 anti-islanding requirements, PV the anti-load, net-metering, residential and commercial voltages, 120/240V, 120/208V, 277/480V, Delta, Stinger, Medium Voltage, High Voltage and Ultra High Voltage Connections, Nikola Tesla, Utility Scale PV, NEC Article 691, Charge Controllers, Stand-alone (off-grid), Rectifier (ac-to-dc), Tesla Powerwall, AC-Coupled PV, DC-Coupled PV and SolarEdge. Stay tuned for Part 3 of PV Markets and Applications Next Week!

PV Markets and Applications, Grid-Tied PV with and without Batteries, Voltage Sags and Peaks, California Rule 21, Energy Storage, Smart Electronics, Bidirectional EVs, UL 1741, UL 1703, CE, NEC, Anti-islanding, Stand-alone, Multimode Inverters, Microgrid Interconnect Device (MID), Interactive Inverter, Solar in Space, Space Based Solar Power (SBSP), Portable Solar Power, Hybrid, Utility Scale PV, Distributed Generation (DG), Concentrated PV, Concentrated Solar Thermal, Solar Thermal vs. Solar PV. Stay tuned for Markets and Applications Part 2 of 3 next week!

PV Markets and Applications, NABCEP Exam, Edmund Becquerel, Photovoltaic Effect, Einstein’s Photoelectric Effect, PV Flash Testing, Bell Labs, Vanguard 1 Satellite, World Installed Capacity of PV, 1 TW of PV Installed, Hockey Stick PV Growth, Space Based Solar Power (SBSP), Dyson Sphere, Swanson’s Law, PV $77/watt in 1977, Solar PV and Eclipses, Guerrilla Solar and Perpetual Solar Flight with the Solar Impulse.

What makes different battery technologies better for different applications, primary and secondary batteries, state of charge (SOC) vs. depth of discharge (DOD), voltage vs. charge, battery open circuit voltage, battery internal resistance, lithium vs. lead acid, battery nominal voltage, 3.6V, 3.2V and 2V, cycle life factors, energy per weight, energy per volume, power per weight vs. energy, arbitrage, self consumption, max discharge current vs. continuous current, charge voltage vs. nominal voltage vs. float voltage, BMS, algorithms, NiMH, NiCad, recycling batteries. To find out more about everything solar and storage, go to solarSEAN.com

Article 705 applies to PV and ESS. Everything we say here is going to apply to anything backfeeding the grid or a microgrid, however we will use ESS examples. We cover anti-islanding, Microgrid Interconnect Devices (MID), IEEE, Microgrid System definition, 705.11 Supply-Side Connections, 705.12 Load-Side Connections, 705.13 Power Control Systems (PCS), Article 705 Part 2 AC Microgrids. To find out more about everything solar and storage, go to solarSEAN.com

In this podcast we cover material in Chapters 6 & 7 in the NEC (not including 706 ESS in detail, which we covered in a previous podcast) from an ESS point of view, including 625 EV Power Transfer Systems, EVSE=EV supply equipment, 692 Fuel Cells, 702 Standby Systems, ATS (automatic transfer switch), MID (microgrid interconnect device), 705 Interconnected Power Production Sources, 706 Energy Storage Systems (ESS), 710 Stand-Alone Systems, 712 DC Microgrids, 750 Energy Management Systems, Power Control Systems, Chapter 8 Communication Systems, Chapter 9 Tables, Conduit Fill Tables, Voltage Drop Tables. To find out more about everything solar and storage, go to solarSEAN.com

Article 90 Introduction, Art. 100 Definitions, Art. 110 Requirements for Electrical Installations, Art. 200 Use and Identification of Grounded Conductors, Art. 240 Overcurrent Protection, Article 250 Grounding and Bonding (& Soares book), Art. 310 Conductors for General Wiring, Art. 358 EMT, Art. 480 Storage Batteries and Chapter 5 Special Occupancies, including aircraft hangers! To learn more about energy storage, go to www.solarSEAN.com

In this podcast we will go over and explain NEC Article 706 Energy Storage Systems Part III “Installation Requirements”, Part IV “Circuit Requirements”, Part V “Flow Battery Energy Storage Systems” and Part VI “Other Energy Storage Technologies”. To learn more about energy storage, go to www.solarSEAN.com

In this podcast we go over: ESS and the NEC 2020, 2017 and 2014 NEC 706 ESS 710 Stand-Alone Systems 712 DC Microgrids 690 PV NABCEP 1897 NEC 1984 NEC Statistics NEC Chapters 1-4, 5, 6, 7 Article 705 Interconnected Power Production Sources Chapter 8 Communications Chapter 9 Tables NFPA 855 Standard for the Installation of Energy Storage Systems 2020 NEC pdf Article 480 Storage Batteries NECA, UL 1973, UL 1989, UL 9540, UL 2436 Flywheels Inverters Converters Gravity ESS UPS Flow Battery AHJ Qualified Person Details of Sections 706.2 through 706.16 (Parts I and II of 706). Part I of Article 706 is “General” and Part II is “Disconnecting Means”. To learn more about energy storage, go to www.solarSEAN.com

In this podcast, we will cover: Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Bloom Energy Bloom Box Hydrogen from Natural Gas Server Module Ethanol Lithium vs. Lead-Acid Solar Family Reunion Nameplate Capacity vs. Usable Capacity Round Trip Efficiency Cobalt Graphite Anode NMC LFP LifePo NCA Reactive Power (Q) Black Start VRLA AGM NiMH Silicon Graphite Anode Tesla batteries Sodium Sulfur UL 9540 UL 1973 LG and more To learn more about energy storage, go to www.solarSEAN.com

In this podcast, we will cover: Energy Storage Systems (ESS) growth rates Lithium and other markets Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Molten Salt Storage Fly Wheel Storage Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) Ternary Batteries (NMC or NCA vs. LFP) Energy Density vs. Specific Energy Battery Memory Myths Protection Circuits Lead-Acid Deep Cycle Batteries Maintenance Equalization NiMH NiCad Lithium vs. Lithium-Ion Batteries Lithium Air Battery Lithium Polymer Microporous Electrolyte vs. Porous Separator Tesla battery cost advantage rumors Vanadium Redox Flow Battery Anolyte Catholyte Oxidation Zinc Bromine Flow Batteries NEC and more! To learn more about energy storage, go to www.solarSEAN.com

In this podcast, we will focus on the following manufacturers: Samsung, LG, Mitsubishi and Sungrow. (In another podcast we will cover other manufacturers) Some of the topics included here are: Diversified manufacturers and bankruptcy risks Warranty insurance Distributed energy storage UPS Residential and telecom smaller scale comparisons Virtual Power Plants (VPP) Cells Racks Containers Peak Shifting Smoothing Power vs. Energy Applications Frequency regulation Pouch Prismatic and cylinder cells Capacity Specific energy Energy density Software PLC State of Charge Power Control Systems (PCS NEC 705.13) Artificial Intelligence (AI) Grid Stabilization Voltage Control Monitoring Voltage Drop (rise) UL 1741 C-rate Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) Lithium vs. Sodium sulfur battery Energy management systems (EMS). To learn more, go to www.solarSEAN.com where you can find classes, flashcards, consulting and everything under the sun.

In this podcast, we will cover: battery charging and discharging voltage levels coulomb counting data temperatures loads warranties battery management systems (BMS) smart batteries dumb batteries self discharge rubber band effect button battery dangers FAA battery rules. To learn more about batteries go to www.solarSEAN.com

Topics covered: Transportation of batteries Lithium metal dendrites Lithium ion International Air Transportation Association (IATA) Surprise Thermal Events Recycling lithium batteries Battery aging Rock content Cutoff Voltage Battery sweet zone Stratification Faded 2nd hand EV batteries used for stationary ESS and data science. For more excitement and to grow your brain and to increase your value as a human being, go to www.solarSEAN.com

In this episode Sean talks about virtual power plants, which is the aggregation of many small energy storage systems together to end up with the energy storage capacity of a large utility scale energy storage facility. This distributed energy storage, working in harmony with each other can provide many benefits to the grid and to consumers. To find out more about energy storage, PV and everything else, go to solarSEAN.com.

In this podcast, we will cover, C-rates, hour rates, E-rates, comparing lithium to lead-acid batteries, DOD, battery cells, modules and packs, series and parallel connections, cylindrical, prismatic and pouch batteries, cathodes, anodes, electron flow vs. conventional current direction, electrolytes and the graphite anode. To learn more, go to solarSEAN.com