Effective Low-budget Approach to Teaching Photovoltaic Systems to Electrical Engineering Technology Students at Community Colleges

This paper presents a unique approach to introduction of the photovoltaic course and corresponding laboratory into the Electrical Engineering Technology program at the two-year college level implemented at Erie Community College in Buffalo, NY. This approach uses the middle ground between the extremely technical courses for photovoltaic systems at four-year colleges and universities and the more simplified approach to photovoltaic systems at the trade level targeting PV installers. It balances the necessity of rigorous theoretical overview of PV components and their behavior under different weather and load conditions, with requirements of significant hands-on course/lab component, and with strict budgetary constraints common to two-year schools. The course methodology, its presentation, and laboratory design are briefly outlined in this paper.