Helix Carport V2: Design and Development of a Solar Carport System

Overview

Helix is SunPower's product line for commercial market sector and provides productized solutions for roof and carports. Helix Carport V2 is the second generation of SunPower's carport family and is the first attempt to productize solar-carports.

Design and development of a solar carport system involved defining carport architecture, layout, allowable loads, component loads, design, analysis and testing, and manufacturing, system installation and field support. The project allowed to understand energy modeling, and embark on three research projects.

Project Contributions

Defined Carport Architecture

  • Created an energy model to evaluate effect of carport architecture(s)

  • Embarked on a research project that created a geometric shading model for a row of solar carports

  • Created a cost model to evaluate the effect of carport architecture on structural costs

  • Created five product configurations that could be customized to any project site in the US

Led Structural Design for Solar Canopy

  • Created a fully-customizable solar-canopy architecture while reducing canopy costs by more than 30%

  • Designed all components in the canopy assembly. This includes cold-formed purlins, PV module attach hardware and purlin coupler

  • Designed to comply with UL2703

  • Concepts developed and modeled in SolidWorks

  • Performed mechanical and structural design and analysis for components using hand calculations, structural code checks (AISI S100) and using Abaqus

  • Embarked on two research projects that investigated buckling instability and minor-axis capacity of the new design solution

  • Developed DFMEA and performed DFM analysis

Led Solar Canopy Design Validation Testing

  • Performed the first four-point bend test on long-span beams with PV modules as bracing member

  • Designed test fixture for component and assembly tests

  • Designed electro-mechanical controllers for load application

  • Data acquisition performed using LabView. Instruments modeled include inline load cell, potentiometer, and LVDT

  • Data analysis performed using Python and Microsoft Excel

Qualification of Production Tooling

  • Collaborated with domestic and Asian suppliers to develop and qualify production tooling for components

  • Collaborated on roll forming, forging, and casting tooling

  • Defined PPAP requirements: developed control plans, quality control requirements, reviewed PFMEA and suggested process improvements

System Installation and Field Support

  • Trained contractors for system installation

  • Trained engineers for system design

  • Collaborated with contractors and project engineers to resolve component and assembly issues related to design