- Beyond Sustainability - The Case for Regenerative Design
- Understanding Place - Climate, Site, and Solar Geometry
- The Six Integrated Systems - An Overview
- Building with the Earth—Natural Materials
- Passive Solar Design - Heating and Cooling Without Machines
- Off-Grid Energy Systems - Power from the Sun
- Water - Catching, Storing, and Cycling
- Liquid Waste Treatment - Botanical Systems
- Food Systems—Buildings That Feed
- Community Design - Scaling Up
- The Integrated Design Process
- Appendix A: Glossary of Key Terms
- Appendix B: The Pangea Textbook Series
- Appendix C: Key Design Principles at a Glance
- The Regenerative Community Vision
- Site Assessment and Land Reading
- Land Use Law and Legal Frameworks
- Master Planning for Regenerative Communities
- Infrastructure Systems Integration
- Housing Typologies and Density Design
- Community Governance Structures
- Economic Models for Community Development
- Phased Development Strategy
- Community Resilience and Long-Term Stewardship
- Appendix A: Legal Entity Comparison Chart
- Appendix B: Community Design Checklist
- Appendix C: Glossary of Community Development Terms
A photovoltaic (PV) cell is a semiconductor device that generates direct current (DC) electricity when exposed to light. Multiple cells are connected to form a PV module (commonly called a solar panel); multiple modules are wired together to form an array sized to meet the building’s energy demand.
The output of a PV array depends on the intensity of the sunlight (measured in peak sun hours per day for the location), the rated power of the modules, and the orientation and tilt of the array. For maximum output in the northern hemisphere, arrays should face true south and be tilted at an angle approximately equal to the site’s latitude. Arrays mounted at fixed tilt produce most of their energy during the middle hours of the day on clear days; tracking mounts that follow the sun can increase output by 25 to 40 percent but add cost and maintenance requirements.
Sizing a PV array requires knowing the building’s daily energy demand and the number of peak sun hours per day at the site. Peak sun hours are available from solar radiation databases and represent the number of hours of equivalent full-intensity sunshine needed to produce the observed daily total solar energy. For example, a site with an average of 5 peak sun hours per day can produce 5 kWh per day from a 1 kWp (kilowatt-peak) array. If the building needs 3 kWh per day, the array should be sized to produce approximately 3.75 kWh/day to account for system losses, suggesting an array of approximately 750 Wp.