Case Studies

Location: Malaysia/Southeast Asia
Year: 2021
Products: TriStar TS-MPPT-60-48V controllers
System size: 23kW of 320W solar panels with five sets of 48V, 1965Ah battery banks
Partners include: Swift Energy, PTTEP, Honeywell

Coming out of a challenging year with the COVID-19 severely affecting the global economy and causing a significant drop in demand for crude oil, national petroleum exploration and production company PTTEP is glad to get back on track with the installation and start-up of the Pemanis gas facility. The project’s wellheads sit offshore Malaysia’s Kuching shipyard and transmit information in regard to pressure, temperatures, gas metering, etc. back to an operations center on land via satellite.

PTTEP commissioned Swift Energy to provide a solar installation to power remote data gathering on the wellheads. The system included 48V VRLA batteries, 72 320W zone 1 solar panels wired in 48V, and eight Morningstar TriStar controllers. The TriStars include a Modbus interface which gathers data and passes it along to a Honeywell remote terminal unit (RTU) cabinet that transmits back to the operations center. The efficiency and dependability of Morningstar’s MPPT technology, along with its range of online resources to help simplify sizing and easily perform site and cost software analysis, made Morningstar a good choice for this and other Swift Energy projects.

Summary

Aviation safety status lights are critical to operations on wellhead platforms and, therefore, require a reliable power source suitable for operation in dangerous environments. Orga BV provided a dependable, low-maintenance solar system using the robust Morningstar TriStar MPPT™ charge controller for Shell’s Champion project in Brunei.

Situation

Jack-up platforms often serve as offshore hotels and heliports for workers and visitors commuting by helicopter to and from oil and gas wellhead platforms. As such, they experience heavy use. Aviation safety status lights are critical to operations, providing visual warnings to alert pilots whether a helideck is safe for landing. To simplify installation complexities, this critical warning light system often requires its own reliable and robust solar power system with high power availability, autonomous operation, and simple routine maintenance. With potential for explosive atmospheres on the helideck, and on the platform in general, the solar power system also requires certification for installation and operation in such conditions. Orga BV provides dependable, effective status lighting systems powered by solar to meet the tough demands of these applications.

Project

One example is Shell’s Champion project with wellhead platforms off the coast of Brunei, a nation on the island of Borneo amid Malaysia and the South China Sea. In 2019, Shell employed Orga to provide quick installation of helideck wave off lighting with components suitable for Zones 1 and 2 hazardous location areas.

Solution

Orga equipped the helidecks with its trusted L425EX-700 high-intensity warning beacons powered by a solar array. The explosion-proof LED light system interfaces with the platforms’ fire and gas detection system. The Orga solution provides reliability, long life, easy installation, extended maintenance intervals, and low power consumption. The result: a quickly operational, proven, reliable, and trusted compliant system meeting Orga’s client’s demanding needs. “Approximately 10 years ago, we standardized using Morningstar controllers in our solar power systems for use in safety-critical power systems for offshore oil and gas assets,” Remco Vonk, General Manager Asia & Pacific, Orga BV, said. “Morningstar products have proven to be ‘fit and forget.’ With Morningstar, we know we won’t have to go back for expensive service calls in the field.”

Application: Rural Electrification
Location: Honduras
Year: 2020
Products: Morningstar Tristar MPPT  600V and EcoPulse controllers
Partners include: Soluz, Trojan Battery, Jinko Solar, Magnum Energy, Solectria

Honduras is a poor country in which 28% of the rural population doesn’t have access to the electrical grid. This leaves people vulnerable to the effects of climate change such as severe flooding.

Soluz has spent decades installing stand-alone solar systems for homeowners and businesses including solar-powered freezers to preserve food in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Soluz trusts Morningstar products for their reliability and customer service. Soluz president Richard Hansen even chose a Morningstar controller for his home system, which provided backup power after two catastrophic hurricanes that knocked out the utility grid for days.

Read the full case study here. 

Application: Rural Electrification
Location: Arctic and Antarctic
Year: Late 1990s to present day
Products: Various Morningstar charge controllers, SureSine inverter, Relay Driver, and meters
Partners include: Tracy Dahl, KiloVault, Sunwize Technologies, Polar Field Services

Tracy Dahl is passionate about developing sustainable solutions. When his mechanical expertise landed him a job as a snowmobile mechanic in the Antarctic in the mid-1990s, he saw an opportunity for renewable energy there as well.

For the past two decades, Dahl has worked alongside researchers in the Arctic and Antarctic to lead the transition from diesel generation to renewable power from pole to pole. He’s done a variety of wind and solar projects including systems with a single solar panel, charge controller and battery; vehicles with DC and AC power; chalets at research stations; and complex projects like large autonomous power and communication systems with remote-control monitoring that run lidar, radar and other research equipment.

No matter the application, Dahl says that Morningstar charge controllers are his go-to solution. In addition to their price point, they can withstand the difficult, condensing environments that often take out power electronics. He’s especially fond of the controllers’ maximum power point tracking (MPPT) capability.

“In a high-altitude, low-temperature environment with reflective snow cover, the MPPT  works incredibly well, providing about 20% to 25% more energy capture than PWM controllers,” he said. “The cold weather pushes the panel voltage way up, but that doesn’t mean anything unless you can turn it into amps through the MPPT. I have actually measured it out side by side and it’s astonishing how much better it works in these environments.”

The Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), formerly known as the Nevada Test Site, is located just 65 miles outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. It is a 1,360-square-mile area of land which, for 41 years, served as the literal “ground zero” for nuclear testing in the continental United States. From 1951-1992, 928 nuclear tests were conducted at the site, including 100 atmospheric tests.

Many of the atmospheric tests, as well as some of those conducted underground that lost containment, resulted in contamination of downwind areas off-site, exposing nearby communities to radioactive fallout, and causing significant concern and fear in the affected populations regarding the potential for adverse health effects.

Additionally, communities downgradient from the NNSS had concerns about the contamination of groundwater from underground testing at the site and its potential to affect public water sources in the future.

Application: All
Location: Massachusetts, United States
Year: 2013
Product: All
Partners include: TÜV Rheinland

When the people responsible for certifying compliance and safety for the industry want to profile your brand for a case study, you know you’re doing something right.  At Morningstar, we’re proud that TÜV Rheinland—an international organization at the forefront of testing, standards and certification for everything from consumer products to industrial and medical devices—selected us for its own case study in solar.

As the case study notes, “in the solar industry, standards and regulations change quickly, with new standards emerging at a rapid pace.” Morningstar’s advanced designs and proven reliability provided TÜV with an ideal partner to showcase in this category.

-Photo courtesy of TÜV Rheinland

Summary

• Chronic homelessness afflicts over a half-million men, women and children in the United States,* with veterans particularly vulnerable. Almost 1 out of 4 are in the state of California**
• Turning Point Foundation, a community-based nonprofit in Ventura, California, offers shelter, services, and support to homeless, mentally ill individuals
• A transitional housing project, River Haven, provides housing and a sense of community to individuals ready for independent living
• Morningstar controllers are a key component in the solar lighting system used to power these homes

**source: “10 Facts About Homelessness in America,” U.S. News and World Report, September 23, 2019 https://www.usnews.com/news/cities/articles/2019-09-23/10-facts-about-homelessness-in-america

Application: Rural Electrification
Location: Peru
Year: 2017
Product: Morningstar charge controller
System size: Residential DC Energy Box sized for individual home (50,000 units)
Partners: Tozzi Green

With explosive economic growth in population-dense urban areas, Peru’s economy has become one of the fastest-growing in the world. However, populations of small, remote villages struggle to survive in harsh climates, leaving one-third of the population without access to a power grid. To encourage development and improve the quality of life in these remote villages, the government of Peru launched the most ambitious rural electrification project ever attempted. The National Rural Electrification Plan will bring access to electricity to 96% of the country’s population.

Italian renewable project developer Tozzi Green is working with the Peruvian government to deliver three solar energy centers, including a high-volume residential DC Energy Box sized for individual homes. In 2017, Tozzi Green chose Morningstar Corporation charge controllers for the project because of their reliability and long life span. The success of this Peru project is a model for future solar rural electrification to bring power to more of the one billion people living without it today.

Read more about the project here.

Application: Telecom
Location: Uganda
Year: 2018
Product: TriStar 45
System size: 810W of solar with two 200-Ah batteries (six sites)
Partners include: All in Trade

Uganda hosts more than one million refugees. In camps, “Protection desks” help refugees register upon entry and provide vital assistance including first aid services, security, emergency food, safety, crime issues and counseling. These critical stations require a reliable power supply to support computers, printers, internet routers, phones and lighting.

Local contractor All in Trade installed solar for six desks in various areas. Each site includes several 270-W solar PV modules (for a total of 810W per site), two 200-Ah batteries connected at 24Vdc and a 2000-W, 24-Vdc inverter. Each site also contains a Morningstar TriStar 45 solar controller to maximize output and manage energy storage and battery health. Each system typically powers loads equivalent to a small to mid-sized office.