The Photovoltaic Higher Education National Exemplar Facility (PHENEF)

In August 1980, the US Department of Energy awarded the proposed grant to Georgetown University. The grant covered the following tasks: Task 1, The Department of Energy would participate in the building of an academic facility that would facilitate the integration of flat plate photovoltaic roof modules with an optimally oriented solar architecture. The completion of the facility to be built on the Georgetown University Campus and known as the Georgetown University Intercultural Center was to be a jointly funded endeavor with the Department of Education funding $9.2M through a grant and a loan, Department of Energy funding a maximum of $4M and Georgetown University funding the residual costs. Task 2, Georgetown University would provide the necessary skills, services, materials, equipment and facilities to design, furnish, install and make operational the Georgetown University Intercultural Center Photovoltaic System. The specific objective of this effort would be to build an exemplar flat plate electrical grid connected photovoltaic (PV) system which would demonstrate integration of PV modules into a watertight roofing surface. The system capability, measured at the input to the inverter, would be a 300 kilowatt peak power system as measured at the normal cell operating temperature and an isolation of 100 milliwatts per square centimeter at the collector surface. DOE funding under the grant for the PV system would be limited to a system cost of $20.00 per peak watt up to maximum of six million dollars.