Solar Windmill - Vulcan, Alberta - Roadside Attractions on Waymarking.com

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Solar Windmill - Vulcan, Alberta

in Roadside Attractions

Posted by:  T0SHEA

12U E 339686 N 5586196

The town of Vulcan has capitalized on the surreptitious coincidence of Gene Roddenberry's having given Spock's home planet the same name as the town.

They have built a Trek Station and tourist information centre in their town to attract any trekkies who may pass by and to inform non-trekkies who may not know everything there is to know about Star Trek. Within the Trek Station are myriad souvenirs signed by members of the Star Trek Family. Apparently, at one time or another all of the members of the cast of the original series have visited this Trek Station and have left their marks behind.

A half block east of the Trek Station the town has also erected a scale model of the Starship Enterprise. Combined, the Starship Enterprise model and the Trek Station form THE tourist draw for the town of Vulcan.

Near the Starship Enterprise model is another interesting structure - a solar flower whose purpose is to provide night time accent lighting for the area, adding to the other-worldly aura.

Solar Tree

Lighting
150 watts of architectural lighting.
The lighting was split into two groups. The first group was to light the center tubular steel structure and give it a futuristic atmosphere. Some have said it looks like a transporter portal from the future.

The second stage of lighting is from the front side of the structure to light up the transparent acrylic leaves and give some color at night to the structure.

Design
The design was created to mimic nature. Some people say it looks like a tree and some say it looks like a flower. Either one is right as it was created to be artistic with a futuristic touch.

Technology
The project has Solar Photovoltaic built into the design of the structure. These modules absorb the sun's energy and convert it into a flow of electrons which is then used as electricity. The modules create DC electricity which is then converted into usable AC electricity through micro-inverters. The project design has five solar PV modules each generating 250 watts DC. This production is then converted into AC electricity at 215 Watts for each leaf.

The project generates 1075 AC watts through five solar PV modules. The solar PV system has built in monitoring to allow the Town of Vulcan to track its production and also be notified of any possible issues relating to the electrical energy generation.

Sustainability
The project generates more than enough electricity to power itself and surplus extra energy. When the sun shines during the day the electricity created is exported to the power grid via wiring in the ground. This exported electricity then passes through the retailers’ electrical meter. The meter then accounts for the exported electricity in credits.

At night, when a majority of the electricity is needed down in our Tourism hub the lighting uses up some of the electrical credits we stored during the day. The extra credits are applied to the other electrical loads the town operated off that same Electrical meter.
From the Town of Vulcan