On a routine visit to the Voltaic warehouse in New Jersey, we were pleasantly surprised by the sight of solar systems installed on many of the utility poles in the area.  The systems are designed by Petra Solar and are made to tie directly into the grid.

Here are a few things we like about the new additions and some things that we think could use improving:

Likes:

1. Modules designed to tie directly into the grid.
2. Straight forward construction and design.
3. Installation appears to be straight forward.
4. Great to see solar all around our warehouse in New Jersey!

Dislikes:

1. Not sure if this is more efficient than a larger scale rooftop installation.
2. The installation did not take into considerate power-loss due to shading from utility lines (it would have been more ideal to install them on top of the utility poles).

More information on the Petra Solar “grid interactive” utility system can be found here, and more information regarding the AC module can be found here.