RE: PV: re: midway labs story

[Robert Warren <robertwarren@mail.com>]

Re: Midway Labs.
The recent comment about Midway Labs products
being "substandard, they deserved to die...." I
think that is a bit harsh. A lot of us in the PV
industry have had problems with trying to survive
in a fledgling industry, and don't need this kind
of derision.
I met and talked with the folks from Midway Labs
two years in a row at the Midwest Renewable Energy
Fair in Amherst, WI, and found them to be working
as hard working and as dedicated to solar as any
of us, especially in the early days of the
industry. The panels the Real Goods got ahold of
were no doubt a prototype or a "beta version 1.0,"
as we label computer wares these days, and no
doubt had some problems.
I aquired some on behalf of Rocky Mountain
Institute, at 50% below wholesale prices to
dealers, with the promise of being able to show
them off to the hundreds of peeople who tour RMI
every year, including a lot of very high profile
engineers and energy consultants from all over the
world. In other words, they practically gave them
to us.
I left on another job, and in my absence, they
were properly installed by Donna Fisher, of Amazon
Solar.
The panels looked fine, and the welded base for
supporting the collectors and mounting the Wattsun
Tracker was nice work, and made for an over-all
good looking installation.  I especially liked the
fact that they were able to produce so much power
with such a tiny amount of silicone, as high cost
of refining silicon has always been a major price
barrier to cheap PV arrays.
We had an Omnimeter logging all three channels of
the three different PV systems, so we were able to
tell that they were doing a fine job, for about
the first year. They were rated at 320 watts, and
we got closer to 360 watts for the first year,
because the air is thinner in Colorado.  However,
concentrating the sun to 300 times the normal
intensity is dangerous stuff, as anyone who has
played with a  magnifying glass on the front lawn
has found out. Snowmass, Colorado, is about 7,200
ft elevation, and so the sun there is about 1.3 
stronger than standard test conditions. So, the
tremedous intensity of the sun started to burn
cells, and after one and a half years, production
was down to about 30 watts. At first, I didn't
suspect burned out cells, I suspected a slight
mis-alinment, which I was able to see be standing
on a ladder and looking through the inspection
hole to see where the pinpoint beam fell on the
tiny silicon chip.
After days of fiddling with the adjustment, I
called Paul at Midway and he sent me a ceramic
mounted 1 K-ohm resistor so I could simulate a
battery load and test the panels. We finally
determined that we had some bad cells, and so they
said they would take them back and fix them. So I
shipped them back, and a year later, they still
hadn't repaired them. I heard that a couple people
quit, that they were going through hard times, but
they eventually made good on their promise to us
to warranty their stuff. Instead of sending us
repaired Midway Lab concentrating panels, they
sent us 4 Siemens flat plate collectors! And this
was just before going under.
They were honest to the end, so I commend them for
this. Concentrating cells, while a great idea, are
a difficult product to maintain over the long run,
because if you lose the precise tracking which is
required, you have lost your entire source of
power. It does take a good person to pay attention
to detail and install them correctly. Plus, what
they were trying, in terms of using adhesives at
the temperatures involved at 300 suns
concentration, was remarkable in that they did
succeed as long as they did.
Finally, a quote applicable to all of us:
"Good judgement comes from experience, and
experience comes from bad judgement."
I am not saying they had bad judgement. They
tried, and they gave it their best shot. I wish
the Midway Lab folks well in whatever they try
next, as they go their individual paths.
Robert Warren


If Midway's products were substandard, and support
terrible, why did Home
Power Magazine carry ads for them?  I've been led
to believe HP checks out
their advertisers, and I considered buying
Midway's product because of that.

Ian?

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