SBIR-STTR Award

In order to achieve cost reduction of PV balance of systems, manufacturers and installers are moving to large ( & gt; 65kg) panel assemblies. Installation is difficult and time consuming requiring back breaking manual labor or heavy construction equipment. This situation has created a roadblock to the further reduction of installation costs. Brittmore Group has developed an automated large panel assembly installation method. The method uses robots to handle and install panel assemblies safely, and at a rate almost 20 times faster than current methods. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits The Brittmore method eliminates risks associated with the installation of large solar panels. The method essentially eliminates installation labor cost and radically hastens revenue generation of a project. For a 200 MW project the installation savings is ~$4M, and the rapid completion of the project enables up to $40M of additional revenue.

With solar power being seen as of national strategic importance, the U.S. DOE established the SunShot Initiative which is driving an aggressive goal of $1/Wp installed price from the current cost of $2.34/Wp for large (utility) scale PV installations. As PV module prices have dropped precipitously due to global oversupply, Balance of System (BOS) or non-module costs such as installation labor, structural materials, and site preparation have come down much slower to the point that they now make up a majority of the overall installation expense. A typical 10 MW-DC plant will require 30,000 – 40,000 modules on 12.5 - 17.0 km of racking, currently each step of the installation process is carried out by hand, being both time consuming and labor intensive. To specifically address this problem, Brittmore Group seeks to dramatically reduce BOS costs through the introduction of automation and robotics into the repetitive steps of the large scale PV installation process. Brittmore’s System consists of three components: the Panel Assembly Cell (PAC), a mobile factory where individual modules are preassembled and wired into larger panels, the WaveRack ground mount, a simplified fixed tilt ground mount support system that doubles as an above ground transport track for panel installation, and the PV Autoloader/Shuttle, an automated system that takes preassembled panels from a centralized logistics area and installs them at megawatts per day rates. The Brittmore System can dramatically reduce labor, heavy equipment, and overhead costs as well as dramatically reduce construction times. Under SBIR Phase I, Brittmore Group developed the PV Autoloader to supplement the prototype PAC, WaveRack and PV Shuttle sub-systems. Under SBIR Phase II, The Company seeks to fully productize the Brittmore System by taking all three components from Alpha to full production.