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Solar PV with a political twist makes it into the Sunday comics

08 July 2008 | By Tom Cheyney | Chip Shots

Solar energy has seen its stock rise in popular culture, not just in the marketplace. The latest photovoltaic penetration showed up in this weekend's Sunday comics section, courtesy of the sociopolitical satire strip, Opus, inked by Berkeley Breathed.

The single-frame funny pages illustration starts off with the comment box: "Achieving the rare and final stage of oil grief: #6, Smug Satisfaction." As the outspoken penguin and two of his pals bare their backsides and stick out their tongues at posters of an Arab oil sheik, imaginary Exxon exec, and Dick Cheney on a garage door, the rest of the cartoon points to a collection of "Mitsubishi 185-watt solar panels" on the roof, connected to an "SMA 5000-watt inverter" on the outside wall, with a power cord snaking to the plug on the front of "speedy but bug-like plug-in hybrid (coming!)."

The punchline box follows, saying simply, "Cost of fill-up: $0," and the guy inside the little car (perhaps the cartoonist himself?) seems to be throwing his head back in laughter. To see the cartoon for yourself, click here.

A check of both Mitsubishi Electric and SMA America finds that the artist/commentator took some liberties with appearances, since neither the solar panel nor the inverter closely match the look of the actual products.

This Sunny Boy gets some free comic publicity.

SMA's popular Sunny Boy 5000US is the likely model, since that particular grid-tied inverter features 5000 W of maximum AC output power (and its larger brothers, the 6000US and 7000US, can carry even larger loads) and is targeted for residential and light commercial applications. The 5000US can also handle up to 6250 W of DC input, which translates into the equivalent of quite a few 185-W panels' worth of photovoltaically generated juice.

But narrowing down which of those 185-W Mitsubishi modules the cartoonist had in mind is a bit trickier, since there are several models. He also didn't specify how many panels have gone into his imaginary rooftop power system, although portions of three units peek through the top of the illustration and appear to feature a five-cell-across design.

Let's assume the user chose Mitsubishi's latest PV-UD185MF5 modules, which incorporate 50 polycrystalline silicon 156 x 156-mm cells in series, five across and 10 lengthwise. The newer models sport a new busbar design, which helps improve efficiency, specified for the UD185 units at 13.4%.

If the homeowners wanted, say, a 2-KW system with these modules, they would likely have a 12-unit array to meet the requirements. My neighbor down the street just had a stationary, south-facing 14-module system put in, also choosing Mitsubishi's silicon boxes. The cell and module purveyor recently announced the unveiling of a Cottage Living Idea Home in Los Angeles, which has a 2.88 KW solar power system, installed by REC, incorporating 16 180-W modules and a Fronius (sorry, SMA) inverter.

Whether Opus and Co.'s comic promotion of Mitsubishi modules and SMA inverters leads to any sales is best left to the beancounters and brand builders. But I wouldn't be surprised if some cartoonish creatures show up for the Solar Education Day planned at the West L.A. "Idea" house on the same symmetrically numbered day--8/8/08--that the Summer Olympics opens with its own cast of characters in Beijing.