Having lived off-the-grid for the past 20+ years, we have learned the benefits of being independent of national utilities – CFE and water. Given that storm seasons in Los Cabos often result in days or even weeks without power in San Jose del Cabo, we wanted to use our experience for the East Cape to protect us in our new townhouse in Pueblo Campestre. Luckily, the developer places 5,000-liter pilas under the courtyard with an ability to fill externally. This means that in a dire circumstance, we could have the water truck that served us in Zacatitos fill it. However, solar systems had not be allowed in the past in the townhouses in Pueblo Campestre, only in the single-family homes with garages on which the panels could be placed unseen to others.
Rightly, Campestre is very cautious to maintain the high quality and consistent look and feel throughout the development. Our first stage was to have Francisco Vargas, the COO of Innovacion Solar, who had installed two systems at our house in Zacatitos meet with us and Bruno Olvera, the project manager at Pueblo Campestre Phase 2. Bruno indicated that no action could be taken without written approval of Campestre. Luckily, Francisco had installed solar on a number of houses in Campestre and new Paciano, the person responsible for giving approval. They met and Francisco received an outline of the requirements to gain an approval – specifically actual plan drawings that showed all of the details of the installation. As one house has panels on top of its pergola that can be seen from the street, one of their requirements was that there was a 20 cm wood perimeter on the top of the pergola so that no panels could be seen from any place on the ground or surrounding properties. Initial plans were presented, some changes and additional detail was requested and finally, this past week, the installation was approved and the plans stamped.
As innovation was concerned about protecting the panels, the plans included changing the supports and cross beams in the pergola from wood to concrete and having the necessary conduits run through this concrete so that they could also not been seen. The concrete work will be performed by the developer as a change order on the construction of our townhouse.
The system that we will be installing includes 12 of the new all black SunPower, 375 W solar panels on a steel racking system leading to a Schneider integrated inverter and power and charge controller system. The power storage will be accomplished with a new Blue Ion H1+ battery management system with 12 kW of storage. The solar panels are guaranteed for 40 years, the inverter for 10 and the lithium-ion batteries for 15. The incredible thing about this system is that the batteries can fully charge in overcast skies as long as there is some glare. With this system and the water storage, we can live as if off-the-grid. In fact, CFE will be treated as if it is a generator and power from the grid will only be used if the batteries are drained – which we don’t believe is likely to happen with this system.
As this is the first ever approval of a solar installation in the townhouses in Pueblo Campestre, we believe that it will set the standards for others who are interested in solar power.
For more information on solar installations and individual products visit Innovacion Solar on their website at https://www.innovacionsolar.mx or on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/InnovacionSolar or contact Francisco Vargas at fvargas@innovacionsolar.mx
