Minutes 09-12-2016 - Laserfiche WebLink

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7 Chris Sandifer: I have almost focused totally on solar for the last seven years. Merrick Parrot: What is your role in the project? Chris Sandifer: I do a lot of site evaluations. I determine if they are compatible with the utility interconnections; also other aspects of compatibility. I look at the design for efficiency, and review a lot of the designs for that. Also I do the medium voltage installs as the electrical contractor. Merrick Parrot: Were you engaged by the Applicant to testify this evening? Chris Sandifer: I was. Merrick Parrot: Thank you. I would now tender Mr. Sandifer as a qualified expert witness in the field of Mechanical Engineering, and development of solar farms. Chris Sandifer: Good evening Chairman McKee and the members of the Commission. I want to describe a little bit about what a solar farm is, and if at some point in time you want to raise your hand, I can speed up. Basically the main components are solar panels and they are mounted on racks and the racks are mounted to steel posts, which are driven into the ground. The output of those solar panels go to an inverter, which converts the output of the solar panel, which is a DC direct current, into an AC current, which you would have at your house. Then there is a transformer which matches the output of the inverter to the —whatever the local utility distribution voltage would be. Basically, I just wanted to tell you that's what we're doing. We're using mono-crystalline, or poly-crystalline silicone panels. They are safe and they don't have any toxic chemicals in them. They don't leach. They can be disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner at the end of their life. The facility will be not be lit so there will be no light trespass. These panels are coated with an anti-glare coating to make them more efficient. What we are trying to do is capture the light, and turn it into electricity, not have light bounce off and wasted. These are very efficient for doing that. These panels - and the nature of them - they don't take light from somewhere else. They just use the light that would naturally fall on that area of the ground — that would be intercepted by these panels. These—they have a fan and they do make noise when they are at full load, but that noise is dissipated to undetectable in the background where this one is. I did the math on this one, and it's— it would be one-eighth the noise that would normally be in the background during the day. And, of course, they don't make any noise at night. There is no smell, there is no dust, there is no radiation. These panels use no nuclear radiation. I would like to address the EMF (electromagnetic force) because sometimes that is a concern. There are actually two different kinds of EMF, that's electromagnetic force that would be around these devices. The first one is a DC, which would be very similar to a battery that is in your car. It will be a higher voltage, but that would be the analogy. I have gone around these panels — three, fifteen watt panels —and taken my boy-scout compass. And they always point north. The electromagnetic field of the earth is a lot strong than these panels produce. They do produce a— but it's not enough to deflect the needle on my compass. That's what I use as my gauge. That may not be technical, but it makes sense. The AC—once the DC goes into the inverter, and comes out—the AC side also has an electromagnetic field that— about it as well. But it would be on the same scale on the lines that are coming into it. I always say when you