Advance:
Solar, Hydro, Wind
Power Inc.

Advance: Solar, Hydro, Wind Power Inc. just completed the installation of a 5 kW (PTC rating) solar electric utility interface system. The system consists of 32 Kyocera KC-187 solar panels mounted on Professional Solar Products "Roof Mounting kits" and powering an SMA 6,000U 240 vac. The inverter is supported by FatSpaniel Performance and Monitoring Service, which gives us current energy production as well as historical data. Our company's web pages (advancepower.net and zapsucker.com) will link you to real time system data and past system performance.

Our Advance: Solar, Hydro, Wind Power Inc. Company Store, Warehouse and Offices are powered by an isolated primary power system. This system consists of a 22 kW Exeltech PURE sine wave inverter, backed up by over 160 kWh of industrial grade battery banks with automatic watering system. This system supplies all the power needed to run all operations of the business. It is much cleaner than PG&E and much more reliable. If PG&E has a power outage, we don't even know it.

The solar utility interface system sends power to the grid all day long (peak power times) and at night (off peak) we recharge our battery banks from the grid with a Xantrex 5.5 inverter/charger. Our business is powered by the Exeltech inverter 100% of the time, whether we are sending power to the grid or using it to replenish our batteries. We do not switch between grid and Exeltech. The Exeltech inverter powers our business 100% of the time. This eliminates phase shifts, sags, surges etc. commonly experienced with grid tied and backup system.

Advance: Solar, Hydro, Wind Power Inc. has been in business since 1978. They are licensed solar and electrical contractors, energy auditors and certified by SMA, Siemens, Sharp, Kyocera and many others. Advance Power was the first solar business in California to be powered off solar and wind. The owners have lived off grid for over 30 years. At their homestead they use and test most of the products they represent. All their water pumping is solar powered by Grundfos and Shurflo. The three houses on their property are power by over 200 solar panels ranging from Arco solar panels to Solarex, BP, Seimens, Sharp and Kyocera. They produce on average 100 kWh per day. These systems are supplemented by Harris hydros. The property has a 3 acre foot reservoir high on the hill. This reservoir produces over 180 psi. Instead of reducing the water pressure we send it through one of our hydros and produce over 1.2 kW @ hour. This fills our little reservoir, just above our house which we irrigate out of. Whenever we irrigate we produce power. When the little reservoir water level goes down one foot a motorized valve automatically turns on the big reservoir pressure. This system runs 24/7 in the winter. The other hydros are powered by seasonal runoff. In the winter we can easily produce all the power we need 24/7. Many times we keep lights on just because we have so much power. This is truly a luxury in the winter when many off grid and grid tied systems are struggling to keep up with demand.