AE 868
Commercial Solar Electric Systems

Procurement Report/Peer Review

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Assignment Description

Solar professionals are responsible for selecting the best PV components in the market. This task can involve the procurement team, solar designers, or project managers in some cases. The latter is asked to gather the most up-to-date technologies and products in the market. The best form for communicating the product is through reviewing a report prepared to the director of the team to evaluate different products and then select the best fit for the company. Solar trade shows are the best places to find the new releases of products and to network with manufacturer representatives to build relationships. A team of solar professionals usually attends these trade shows to gather specification datasheets.

This semester, we'll undertake creating such a Report and Peer Review, which will span Lessons 2-5. The goal of this assignment is to teach you to find commercial components used in PV systems and compare their suitability for the application.

This Report should include all details related to the products and parameters that make the selection and evaluation process easier. This assignment consists of two deliverables. The first is a three-page Report on three commercially available products in the market that use the same technology. The second deliverable is a peer review of a classmate's Report. The peer review process will be to evaluate the technical parameters of the recommended product by the report preparer and compare with other products to see if the recommended product was actually the best pick based on the knowledge we learned in class.

The two deliverables for this assignment will place you in two different roles. The first will be as a designer or Procurement Analyst and will produce a Report. The second is as a project manager or director who will review the report and provide a summary and comments.

Deliverable 1: Report

Content Requirements and Instructions

Go back to the scenario on the Overview pages in Lessons 2, 3, and 4. You are asked to gather information and specification sheets from a trade show and present to your director in a report format. Now is the time to work on your Report. There are three parts, as follows:

Part A (Lesson 2): PV Module

  1. Find three available PV modules in the market and evaluate them in terms of performance and main characteristics.
  2. Compare main parameters given by manufacturers’ specification sheets.
  3. Recommend the best match for the application your company is working on.
  4. Use appropriate tools (such as SAM or PVWatt) to compare annual energy production for each module.
  5. Use tables for comparison.

Part B (Lesson 3): Battery

  1. Research the market for three potential lead-acid battery types that can be used for solar PV applications. Consider main features learned in class such as capacity, depth of discharge, and maintenance requirements.
  2. Compare main parameters given by manufacturers’ specification sheets.
  3. Recommend the best match for the application your company is working on.
  4. Use tables for comparison.

Part C (Lesson 4): PV Inverter

  • Present to your director a page of information with three different PV inverters with evaluations of performance for each inverter.
  • Compare main parameters given by manufacturers’ specification sheets.
  • Recommend the best match for the application your company is working on.
  • Use appropriate tools (such as SAM or PVWatt) to compare annual energy production for each module.
  • Use tables for comparison.

Formatting Requirements

  • The Report itself should be three pages - double-spaced, 12 point font in PDF format.
    • Title Part A: "PV Module"
    • Title Part B: "Batteries"
    • Title Part C: "Inverter"
  • Attach 3 datasheets for each part (total of 9 datasheets). You may highlight the important values on the datasheet using PDF tools. 
  • Title your Report "PV Module, Battery, and Inverter Report" presented to "Director of Procurement."
  • Please use the following naming convention: Last Name_First Name Report.PDF. 

  • Please use tables as needed to make the selection process easier. Tables are usually used for main technical parameters.
  • Properly cite references using IEEE format.

Submission Instructions

You will work on the Report in Lessons 2, 3, and 4. The Report will be submitted at the end of Lesson 4.

Submit your PDF as an attachment to Lesson 4: Procurement Report/Peer Review Assignment in Canvas for instructor and peer review.

Deliverable 2: Peer Review

Content Requirements

For the Peer Review portion of this assignment, you must complete the following:

  1. Edited markup of one classmate's Report.* The main items to consider marking up are:
    • the main technical parameters, and
    • the recommended product parameters.
  2. Review Summary: This one-page document includes constructive feedback to your peer that will strengthen the final product selections for PV systems. This must include:
  • General Comments: This is a broad statement of your impressions gathered in reviewing the Report. This should include any major errors or omissions that appear to seriously weaken the Report. This should also include constructive and positive statements of the Report.
  • Practical Relevance: This should discuss if the Report provides technical justification when recommending the system components, or might the author have randomly selected the components? For example, author fulfills the goal of recommending the best PV system components that will maximize solar utility for the client in the given locale?
  • Discussion on the clarity of the Report: This is a summary statement of the spelling/grammar, organization of content, and proper use of citations and references.

*Note: Annotating PDFs

If you have not yet used a PDF viewer/editor to make comments, highlight, or otherwise mark up a PDF document, we suggest the following free applications (if you do not have Adobe Acrobat):

Formatting Requirements

  • The Review Summary should be one page - double-spaced, 12 point font in PDF format.
  • Title your Summary "Procurement Report Feedback."
  • Please use the following naming convention for the annotated markup: Last Name_First Name Markup.PDF. 

  • Please use the following naming convention for the Review Summary: Last Name_First Name Review Summary.PDF. 

Note: the name convention is refering to your name and not your peer's name

Peer Review Canvas Help

Submission Instructions

You will work on the Peer Review during Lesson 5 and submit it at the end of Lesson 5 (please check your calendar for the correct due dates).

Step 1: Upon notification of the Peer Review, go to the Lesson 4: Procurement Report/Peer Review Assignment in Canvas. You will see your assignment to peer review. (Note: You will be notified that you have a peer review to work with in Canvas in the Recent Activity Stream and the To Do list. Once peer reviews are assigned, you will also be notified via email.)

Step 2: Download your classmate's Report.

Step 3: Before you begin your mark-up and review, check the simulation files/results. Your peer should share his/her SAM model (often with multiple cases) with you as a source of data to review. You don't need to dig deep into it, but it will be useful to check the SAM results against the numbers in the Report.

Step 4: Provide feedback in the following two ways (as indicated above in the Content and Formatting Requirements sections):

  • Edited Markup - implemented via annotations on the PDF.
  • Review Summary - in a separate document (PDF).

Step 5: In order to complete the Peer Review, you must add a comment in the comment sidebar in the assignment at the bottom. This will allow your peer to see your feedback on his/her procurement report. Your comment will be in the form of your two attachments:

  • Edited Markup
  • Summary of your Review

Step 6: When you're finished, click the Save Comment button. You may need to refresh your browser to see that you've completed the required steps for the peer review.

Step 7: In order for the instructor to be able to view and grade your submission, you will need to upload these files to the Procurement Report/Peer Review - Peer Review link. After you click on the link, you can submit your Markup and Summary reports to that link. 

Note: Please don't upload your files on top of your original work as that will overwrite the original report and your reviewer won't be able to view the original report.

Grading Rubric - Report

Below are the criteria on which your Report will be evaluated by the instructor.

Report Grading Rubric
Criteria (Standards) Total Points Possible (6)
Report

Addresses PV Modules, Batteries, and Inverters. Demonstrates understanding of the main comparison parameters and characteristics of PV components. Discusses concepts explored throughout the course. Use of tables is the best form of data comparison. Recommendation of the best products as final statement of the report.

 4

Follows all assigned formatting requirements.

 1
Report is well-written, edited, and properly cited. 1

Grading Rubric - Report: Peer Review

Below are the criteria on which your Peer Review will be evaluated by the instructor.

Report: Peer Review Grading Rubric
Criteria (Standards) Total Points Possible (4)
Peer Review

Summary: Demonstrates exceptional consideration of your classmate's assignment and a clear understanding of the Report. The review itself is thorough and includes the following required criteria: 1 - General Comments (.5 points); 2 - Practical relevance (2 points); and 3 - Clarity of the Report (.5 points) as described in the project instructions.

 3

Marked-up PDF: Indicates that the entire document was reviewed in detail and not scanned.

 1

Questions?

Visit the General Questions and Discussion Forum in Canvas to discuss questions you may have for your Report. If you have a question about your project that you do not wish to share with the class, you can also email the instructor at any time.