Ready Solar’s Estrada House | Canada Project of the Year
For the first time ever, Solar Builder is recognizing a Canadian Project of the Year Award as part of its annual celebration of innovative solar installations.
Developer/EPC/Installer: Ready Solar Inc. | Modules: Longi | Inverters: AP Systems | Mounting/Racking: S-5! and Kinetic Rack
The massive Estrada residential solar system in Vancouver, B.C., built by Ready Solar, has won Solar Builder‘s inaugural Canada Project of the Year Award. The 25 kW solar system should produce about 26,000 kWh per year, virtually eliminating the owners’ $4,500 annual utility bills, according to Sukhpaul Parmar, the owner of Ready Solar, also based in Vancouver.
Among challenges for the project were the many-faceted roof planes of the residence, which was built with a 27-degree pitch. Parmar credits the use of Aurora Solar software (with Lidar) and the assistance of inverter supplier AP Systems to overcome the challenges of the planning the layout of the 18 separate roof planes and the selection of the protected location to mount equipment.
Solar instead of a 400 Amp main panel
The decision to go solar grew out of the homeowners remodeling plans to turn the sprawling residence into a mini-resort for the household of seven children. The owner had sought out approval from local utility BC Hydro to upgrade the main panel from 200 Amps to 400 Amps, but was turned down because of the high demand on the grid in the neighborhood, near the Vancouver airport. The solution to the owner’s plan to consume more electricity was to generate it himself by having solar installed.
While BC Hydro declined the 400 Amp improvement, the utility did provide a $5,000 subsidy for the solar system, Parmar notes. The size of the system was bumped up by about 10% to accommodate the planned future use of both batteries and EV charging, he says. The homeowner’s rate plan is for 11.6 cents for the first 1,300 kilowatt hours every two months, and then it goes up to 15 cents, Parmar adds.
Adding to the performance of the solar system was the selection of bifacial panels, Parmar notes. Although the racking system only raises the panels about six inches from the roof surface, Ready Solar installed 54 bifacial Longi Hi-MO 7 solar panels — the LR7-54HGBB — a 450W module using N-type TopCon cell technology, along with rodent guards for wiring protection and snow retention guards on the standing seam metal roof.
Since the homeowner didn’t want roof penetration, cabling ran across rows to the underside of the metal ridge cap and then down to the new sub-panel,” Parmar notes.
Bifacial panels on a roof mount
The all-black Longi modules, made for the Canadian market, have a dual-glass design, and are known for high efficiency, superior temperature performance, and long-term reliability. The panels should see about 10% bifacial boost thanks to the low snowfall typical of the neighborhood, just east of the ocean shore. “Even when it snows, it turns to rain and is gone by the end of the day,” says Parmar. “We install snow retention rails on about 80% of our jobs,” says Parmar. His company has installed about 300 jobs in British Colombia since formation in 2020, he notes.
The racking for the project was supplied by S-5! and Kinetic Rack. “Our original plan was to not use racking and to do a rail lift system. But because some roof planes were portrait and some were landscape, we had to be versatile,” Parmar notes.
25-year warranty end to end
The entire Estrada system is covered by 25-year warranties of Ready Solar workmanship, the AP Systems inverters and the Longi panels.
Most of the residential systems that Ready Solar installs are in the 13 kW to 14 kW range, Parmar estimates. The company tends to cater to more premium upscale residential systems, and they have begun to install commercial and industrial systems as well, he notes. “We’re seeing more uptake in the higher-end jobs, so no real slowdown in the market is expected, even though the Greener Homes federal financing program has ended,” he says.
“BC Hydro has a good rebate program for demand response in the C&I market, so that’s where our work is growing,” Parmar says.
