Sungrow 60 kW string inverters have been used in a 2.25MW Lockheed Martin owned solar carport project.
Officially commencing operations in late October, the 14,065 square metre solar array covers Lockheed Martin’s parking lot at its facility near Clearwater, Florida and is the state’s largest privately owned solar power system.
The 7,260 solar panels will generate 3.33 million kilowatt hours of clean energy per year and according to Sungrow, will save Lockheed Martin USD $6.5 million in savings over 25 years.
As well as the solar electricity, the covered parking lot is providing shade and protection for more than 500 cars.
“This plant is indicative of Lockheed Martin’s drive to be energy efficient and a responsible corporate citizen,” said Leo Mackay, Lockheed Martin vice president of Sustainability. “It is a building block in our larger effort to align our company with the demands of this century: global security; advanced infrastructure; and renewable energy.”
Lockheed Martin has a goal of slashing its greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent by 2020 and says it is considering other Florida sites to construct an additional solar carport.
The solar carport is one of three new on-site renewable energy projects for Lockheed Martin that will generate an additional three megawatts of solar electricity at various facilities once fully operational by the end of this year.
Sungrow SG60KU-M string inverters were used for the Clearwater project, which feature a maximum efficiency of 98.9%.
Sungrow was the world’s second biggest supplier of solar inverters in 2014 in terms of megawatt-shipments and more than 14GW of Sungrow solar inverters have been installed around the world to date. Sungrow inverters have been widely used in Australia for residential solar power installations.
Founded in 1997, Sungrow currently employs more than 1,000 people; with more than 30% of its staff employed as research and development engineers.
Solar carports, parking lots and canopy systems help companies extract maximum value from their sites while also providing a very welcome feature for employees and visitors. Other recent significant solar canopy projects have been constructed in Fremont, California and at Bristol Community College in the USA.
