Factory Five Facility Goes Solar! MORE PICS!

[Dave Smith]

Over the next month, Factory Five Racing will be installing a solar array on top of our manufacturing facility here in Wareham, MA. The resulting renewable solar energy will be powering our welding machines, laser cutter, and facility to excess in 9 of the 12 months here in New England. Work started this week, and we’ll keep you updated as the project goes on.

Most people don’t think of fuel efficiency/environmentalism when they think of a Factory Five, but the truth is that the cars we build have been used as a starting point for many award-winning electric or hybrid designs.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40512&d=1428865603
Hybrid-electric 818S built by West Philly High School was recognized by President Obama at the 2014 White House event “Maker Faire”. (Read more (https://www.factoryfive.com/whats-new/factory-five-818-recognized-by-president-obama/)) Check out a few more cool green examples of alternate-powered Factory Fives at the end of this post.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40496&d=1428865586
Work began on Monday with the delivery of about half of more than 50 pallets of solar panels, racking, and electrical materials.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40497&d=1428865586
The panels will be mounted on the roof of Factory Five.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40498&d=1428865587
The weather here in New England broke just in time for work to begin. A few weeks ago, this entire area was a mountain of snow.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40499&d=1428865588
The electrical tie-in to the power grid is interesting since when we are not using the solar electricity, it will be fed into the power supply for the surrounding area.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40500&d=1428865589
The crew began to place the panel racking on top of the building.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40501&d=1428865589
The entire south face of Factory Five’s 40,000+ square-foot roof surface will be covered with solar panels.

[Dave Smith]

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40502&d=1428865590

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40503&d=1428865591

Check out these alternate-powered Factory Fives. Each one of these cars full details and photos if you follow the subsequent link.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40514&d=1428865605
All-electric Factory Five 818 heads down Laguna Seca’s famous corkscrew. Customer Erik Hansen built this beautifully finished and completely functional all-electric 818S.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40513&d=1428865604
Erik’s electric 818S debuted at the 2014 SEMA Show, and was driven/tested by AutoBlog.com and Gas2.org. The white 818S is powered by an EV West electric drivetrain. Read more (http://www.factoryfive.com/whats-new/autoblog-com-checks-out-ffr-customer-erik-h-s-all-electric-818/).

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40515&d=1428865896
Simon Hauger and the students from West Philly High School showed their hybrid-electric 818 on the front lawn of The White House.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40516&d=1428865941

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40517&d=1428866023
All-electric Factory Five ’33 Hot Rod built by SolidWorks and debuted at SEMA 2009. The car also headlined the SolidWorks World Convention in Anaheim, CA in 2010. Read more (http://www.factoryfive.com/whats-new/ampds-33-hot-rod-at-sema-2009/).

[Dave Smith]

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40519&d=1428866349
In 2011, Simon Hauger and the team at West Philly High School finished first at the Green Grand Prix beating all entries. The Factory Five GTM was powered by an electric front-wheel drive and bio-diesel rear-drive. The car averaged over 100 miles per gallonand was featured on the cover of Popular Mechanics receiving the 2011 Breakthrough Award! Read more (http://www.factoryfive.com/whats-new/factory-five-gtm-wins-green-grand-prix/).

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40520&d=1428866372g
The crew at Whitby Motorcars built this ’33 Hot Rod with an all-electric power plant with a 150-200 mile range per charge in 2011. Read more (http://www.factoryfive.com/whats-new/whitby-goes-all-electric/).

[68GT500MAN]

I am in the process of adding solar to my house in the next few weeks. Maybe something electric in the future.
Doug

[Dave Smith]

Update 04-06-15

The second week of work sees installation of the electrical panels and about 1/3 of the roof mounted solar array.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40505&d=1428865595
Factory Five Ops Director Nate Johnson (R) talks to site manager Steve about the schedule electrical tie-in.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40506&d=1428865595
During the warm months, we will be producing excess power from the roof mounted solar panels.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40509&d=1428865600
Stage 1 of the installation process involves the rack mounts quickly followed by bolting on the solar panels.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=40507&d=1428865596
The entire surface of the south facing peaked roof (difficult to see the slope of the roof from this angle) will be covered with solar panels.

More updates will be given as the project goes along.

[David Hodgkins]

Fantastic investment Dave!

:)

[RM1SepEx]

Dave, what is the total # of panels and wattage for each?

I'm looking at doing my house's entire south facing roof and I can only get twenty nine 315 watt panels on it! (9135 watts) and the NREL data estimates a yearly output of 12,000 kwH

Your tax credit will be amazing

I can see over 100 panels in that shot!

[Mark Dougherty]

wow
that's just great
can't wait to see this one finished up.

[Garry Bopp]

Factory Five never sits still! Always something new happening. It's great to see FFR going "green".

Garry

[kabacj]

Very cool Dave.

I love the concept of power from the sun. It's almost like we are wasting the Suns energy if we don't do our best to capture and use it.

It's great to see the leadership and innovation at factory five.

[RM1SepEx]

You do realize that we capture and use it to heat the earth now. It's a very complex series of heat transfers and reflections and conduction back to space. We absorb light in solar panels and convert about 15-16% to electrical energy with the panels. That % is being removed from the heat balance of the Earths atmospheric envelope

[Ray]

We just put panels on the roof of our garage. 10-panels and they're producing more than we use so we are building up credit with SDG&E. We'll draw on that credit during the winter months.

Ray

[Mad Dog]

Our roof mounted solar system is almost completely installed The electrical inspector signed off on the system, and now we are waiting on the power company to let us turn the system on and start making power. The system is a 179 kilowatts array, and once it is operational, it will generate enough power to run all of our operations during the warm months between April and September, and roughly 67% the rest of the year.

http://www.factoryfive.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/DSC_5656.jpg
Solar panels are mounted to racks that bolt directly to the roof surface.

http://www.factoryfive.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/DSC_5678.jpg

http://www.factoryfive.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/DSC_5683.jpg
Over 600 panels cover the south facing side of Factory Five’s facility.

http://www.factoryfive.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/IMG-20150418-00690.jpg
Out front, the power inverters change the solar DC-current to AC-grid power.

http://www.factoryfive.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/IMG-20150421-00692.jpg
Director of Engineering Jesper I., Mad Dog, and Steve get a bird’s eye view.

http://www.factoryfive.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/IMG-20150421-00694.jpg
Once these power inverters are operational, our solar array will be the ultimate force in the galaxy!

[first time builder]

OOPS double post

[first time builder]

Gee that looks like enough power to operate a FLUX Capacitor !

[RM1SepEx]

Wow! My south facing roof(s) can only hold 29 panels and 9KW. That's a 1/2 million dollar plus installation!

[Mad Dog]

Factory Five is closing down this afternoon at 2 PM as we begin to go live with our new solar panels. We will be open tomorrow morning for plant tours and kit pick-ups, and will be open Monday for normal business hours. Hope everyone has a great weekend!