Green Building/Solar PV Installation and Design Principles

Objectives

By the end of the Solar PV Installation and Design Principles module, students will understand:

PV module, solar and electricity basics
PV markets and applications
PV safety, sizing, system design, maintenance, analysis and trouble shooting
what it is really like on the job site

Goals

The following are some of the main goals for the Solar PV Installation and Design Principles module.

Concepts

By the end of the Solar PV Installation and Design Principles module, students will understand the following concepts (among others):

Max power versus daily energy
Series versus parallel configuration
Cells, modules and arrays
Solar window and shading effects
Grid intertie
Solar rebates, credits and feed in tariffs

Vocabulary and units

By the end of the Solar PV Installation and Design Principles module, students will be able to confidently use the following vocabulary and/or units (among others):

PV, cell, module, array, DC, AC, Maximum Power Point, Open Circuit, Short Circuit, Grid intertie, Stand alone, Inverter, Charge controller, Disconnect, Nominal, Insolation, Full sun
kWh/(m²*day), W/m², V_oc, I_sc, I_mp, V_mp, Amps, Volts

Calculations

By the end of the Solar PV Installation and Design Principles module, students will be able to do the following calculations (among others):

Instantaneous power
Daily and Yearly energy

How to

By the end of the Solar PV Installation and Design Principles module, students will be comfortable doing the following (among others):

Use photovoltaic test equipment
Use volt and amp meters
Properly size system
Install panels & all equipment to grid intertie

Field trips

By the end of the Solar PV Installation and Design Principles module, students will be have gone on the following field trips (possibly among others):

Residential PV installation
University PV installation or testing station (e.g. HEIF music building PV system or Sci-D at HSU)
Commercial installation (e.g. Kokatat)

Page data
Authors	Lonny
License	CC-BY-SA-3.0
Language	English (en)
Related	0 subpages, 10 pages link here
Redirects	Green Building Pre-Apprenticeship Program/Solar PV Installation and Design Principles
Views	49 page views (analytics)
Created	January 29, 2011 by Lonny Grafman
Last edit	August 18, 2026 by Felipe Schenone
Cite as	Lonny (2011–2026). "Green Building/Solar PV Installation and Design Principles". Appropedia. Retrieved September 28, 2026.
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