I recently had the chance to visit a house that was built by friends – Chuck and Patricia. When it was sold, it was purchased by another Patricia and remained Casa Patricia at the top of the hill in Terrazas de Costa Azul (formerly Lito Hill). This large house has recently added solar to provide electricity to the pool, the Pentair heat pump for the pool, and electricity for the house. One of the most unique aspects of the system, designed by Innovacion Solar is the use of bi-directional SunPower 450 W solar panels. What does bi-directional mean? The panels absorb sun from the top as well as reflected sun from the walls and floors below the panels. SunPower solar panels are unique in that they use copper mesh on the underside of the panel to collect the solar energy. The solar panels are placed on a pergola beside the garage (25 panels) and on a pergola above the deck on the second floor of the house (12 additional panels).

Providing a potential total of 16.65 kW of solar energy is full sun, a 15 KW Sol-Ark inverter is used to convert the solar power to electricity to run appliances in the house and to charge the lithium-ion batteries stored in the garage. The home has two Renon battery management cabinets in the garage, each holding three 5.12 kW lithium-ion batteries for a total storage capacity of 30.72 kW of energy.The system also has a 22 kW Generac Generator installed by the owners.

The property owner has purchased the lot in front of the house to both protect the view of Costa Azul and the Sea of Cortez as well as to expand both the living space and the solar system.