Solar on schools designed for emergency shelters: 39th IEEE photovoltaic specialist conference

In 2001, the U.S. Department of Energy initiated the Solar for Schools program for the purpose of installing solar electric (photovoltaic - PV) systems on schools as educational demonstration applications. The Florida Solar Energy Center, the Florida Energy Office and other partners joined the program and have since installed over 250 small photovoltaic systems throughout Florida. This report provides information on the present Florida SunSmart Emergency Shelter School program as a viable, real time application for ensuring an uninterruptable power supply to the emergency shelter part of the school. The systems may be used to power essential items during power outages occurring during normal times or disasters. This project presented several challenges including code requirements related to photovoltaic design, interconnect issues, PV site location, building integration, availability of solar materials and data acquisition use.