The Trip to Ciudad del Carmen
Saturday January 13, 2018
After an intense trip from Montreal to Toronto that took 11 hours due to a heavy storm in Montreal, Teresita and Ale arrived to Toronto, where they stayed at the marvellous Hilton Toronto Airport Hotel. At their arrival, late that night, a lady from Guatemala happily welcomed them, and the Hotel offered them popcorn once they waited to cheked-in.
Teresita and Ale ate the delicious popcorn, checked-in and went to their room to rest a little from their hectic trip. Before going to bed, Teresita and Ale went downstairs to eat at the cozy Restaurant from the hotel, where the peaceful atmosphere at the Restaurant gave them a humongous break from the noise they had experienced at the Airport with all the people scared, tired and lost from not knowing how they will made it to their final destination, and locate their luggages. Teresita and Ale ate two delicious soups: one onion soup (recommended by the lady from Guatemala) and a carrot with cumin and curry soup.
After eating, Ale called their Hotel in Cancun, to inform them that they will not be arriving at Cancun that same day because their plane was delayed and that they will only arrive to Cancun the next evening. The person at the Hotel was very understanding and moved our reservation for the next day. At the same time, Ale made the reservation at the same Hotel for Alfred and Tim, the other part of the Göbel Solar Team coming directly from Düsseldorf Germany to install the first Solar Panel Systems from Göbel Solar Mexico!
Sunday January 14, 2018
On Sunday morning, Teresita and Ale took the plane to Cancun. At noon, they arrived to Cancun, took a taxi to the Real Inn Hotel, and checked-in. The hotel had a nice view to the Laguna. The weather was warm and humid. Teresita and Ale had a nice rest while waiting for Alfred and Team. Alfred and Tim came later that evening and Teresita and Ale met them at the Restaurant from the Hotel to enjoy a delicious traditional Mexican supper. The evening was peaceful, with the Laguna bringing a refreshing breeze.
Alfred and Tim, came all the way from Düsseldorf Germany to join Teresita, Ale and Monica (Ale’s Aunt) to install their firsts solar systems in Ciudad del Carmen!
Monday January 15, 2018
The next day, Alfred, Tim, Teresita and Ale, had a delicious breakfast with again very traditional Mexican food, with chilaquiles, agua de horchata y de Jamaica.
Fili, their driver sent by Monica, arrived short after they had finished breakfast, and soon they all took the road to head towards their final destination: Ciudad del Carmen.
On their way to Ciudad del Carmen, the dense forest and the wonderful colourful villages brought a big sense of comfort and transport us to another reality. After 8 hours driving, with a few technical stops, Phili, Teresita, Alfred, Tim and Ale arrived to Ciudad del Carmen, where a bright sunset welcomed them to their final destination. The view on the Golf of Mexico was splendid.
Day 1: Setting Up the Scaffolds
Tuesday January 16, 2018
On Tuesday January 16, 2018, Alfred, Tim, Teresita, and Ale, met Monica, and together they all went to the working site (Monica’s Laundry Dry Cleaning Shop) to setup the first Solar System. The first challenge was to setup the scaffolds.
Alfred was very surprised when the scaffolding company came to deliver the scaffolds. The scaffolding company dropped the scaffolds all in pieces, and left. Alfred could not believe it. He said: “In German, it is unthinkable that a scaffold company will leave without assembling the scaffold.”
The scaffolding company had to come three times during the day to bring more platforms (the platforms are the part from the scaffold where people can stand), and 16 screws to level the scaffold.
At the beginning, the scaffolding company delivered only 9 platforms, then Ale ordered15 additional platforms and 16 screws to level the platforms. The next day, she asked for 24 more platforms.
The engineer from who Monica ordered the aluminum triangles (that support the solar panels), referred us to Mauricio, a short and very strong man, who helped us to setup the scaffold.
Mauricio and Tim started to setup the first levels of the scaffold. Setting up the scaffold was no easy task, but with Mauricio, who could almost bend in half backwards while lifting the platforms, and Tim, they managed to set the first two levels of the scaffold.
Later on during the day, Luis, the uncle from Ale, sent four engineers to help Göbel Solar Mexico Team to install the third level of the scaffolds. Their help was invaluable! They came with their hammers and anti-skid gloves, and this helped them to grab and fix the platforms faster. With their help the Göbel Solar Team finished rapidly to setup the third level of the scaffolds and was ready to starting installing the Solar System.
DAY 2: Recruiting Day, Drilling the Holes and Installing the Aluminum Triangles!
Wednesday January 17, 2018
Alfred, Tim, Teresita, Monica, and Ale, went to a hardware store called Garnier to get a 20’ ladder and a SDS Drill to drill the holes on the concrete exterior wall to install the aluminium triangles to support the Solar Panels on the Laundry’s fassade. At Garnier, Teresita inquired to buy or rent an SDS Drilling Machine, but the person at the store told her that they did not had this equipment in stock. Teresita asked whether he knew of someone who could do the work.
The seller indicated to Teresita that the man who was cleaning the vents of the store at this very moment had his own SDS drilling machine and that he could do the work.
Teresita went to see him, and ask him if he had time after he finished his work at Garnier to meet her at the Laundry to help them to drill a set of holes to setup of a solar system. He said that of course he had time. And Teresita told him:
You know what it is when someone falls you from the sky? He said: Yes. And Teresita told him: Well, you fall from the sky to us. Thank you.
Jorge gave his phone number to Teresita and at around 3 pm he met the Göbel Solar Mexico Team at the Laundry. Alfred explained to Jorge the holes that they needed to drill. Then, Alfred, Tim, Jorge and Mauricio finished to install the last platforms from the lower levels of the scaffold. Finally, Jorge was ready to starting drilling the first holes.
Drilling of the first holes
Jorge started to drill deep holes to insert the screws with double threading (from one side and from the other). These double thread screws are fixed with a glue chemical into the wall. The glue and screws came from Fischer Sistema de Fijacion. Jorge drilled in total 44 holes. 
To make sure that all the holes were aligned, Jorge and Tim used a green phosphorescence cable. The Check Passed! All holes were perfectly aligned.
Luis lent them a blow air machine to clean all the concrete powder left over from the drilling. Tim told Ale, in German they called that machine: einer ausbläser. Once the holes were clean, Jorge filled the holes with glue with the help of a glue gun, and inserted the double threaded screws.
At around noon, two guys, Ulises and Felipe, came to see Ale to offer their service as mechanics, electricians, and even aluminium workers. Ulises and Felipe had worked for the past 11 and 9 years respectively at Protexa, the company next door from the Laundy, to setup oil platformss in the Golf of Mexico. They had a break before their next contract starts again in March, and therefore, said that they would be very interested in working at installing Solar Panels.
Ale asked them to come back in one hour to meet Teresita. They did. After they met Teresita they agree to come back the same day at 2:30 with their work outfit to start the work.
At 2:30, Ulisis and Felipe met Alfred, Tim and Jorge, and started working with Göbel Solar Mexico Team.
To carry the Solar Panels up to the top row of the scaffolds, Luis lent them a 20 feet long ladder, and other very useful tools: screw drivers, allen keys, and an electrical cutter to cut the aluminum rails for the next solar system at Monica’s House.
In between two meetings, Luis came to visit the Göbel Solar Mexico Team at the Laundry working site. His office is located just around the corner from the Laundry.
He showed Teresita and Ale the work that his company is currently doing to monitor the vibrations of Wind Turbines in Oaxaca to provide predictive maintenance to the Wind Farm in Oaxaca.
Later during that day, Roberto, a second uncle from Ale, came with refreshing coconut water in a cooler. Everyone at the working site drank the refreshing coconut water in a hot afternoon in Ciudad del Carmen.
Teresita went to the Market to buy meet and vegetables and went to her father’s house to cook it. At 2:00pm Teresita came back with a delicious feast to the working site and everyone took a pause to enjoy her delicious tacos. For dessert, Teresita brought them the most delicious Mameyes that tasted like ice cream.
Installing the Aluminium Triangles
In the afternoon, to align all the 16 triangles perfectly, Jorge enlarged the bottom borehole of each of the 16 aluminium triangles. He needed to add a 1cm game, because the holes that he drilled on the wall were 41 cm apart, while the boreholes on each triangle, were 42 cm apart.
After, Jorge enlarged all the top holes from the 22 triangles, they installed the triangles to the wall.
At 6:00 PM, the Göbel Solar Team met around Alfred to discuss what were the next steps for tomorrow and decided to meet the next day at the laundry at 8:00 am to start again the work. They all confirmed that they could be there at 8:00 for the next 10 days and they say goodbye to each other. That day, Jorge completed his fantastic work of drilling all the holes with great professionalism, and he was going to continue with Göbel Solar Mexico Team for the next two weeks to complete with the installation of the two solar systems.
In the evening, Ale called Paqueteria Express to make sure that Paqueteria Express could deliver the solar panels to her grand father’s house that same evening. Ale coordinated with Monica to make sure that the mounts cargo truck was at her Grand Father’s house when Paqueteria Express came to deliver the Solar Panel boxes to unload the boxes from the truck.
DAY 3: Unpacking the Solar Panels, Installing the Top Row of Solar Panels, Passing the Cables and visit to CFE to Request installing Bidirectional Meter!
Thursday January 18, 2018
In the morning Teresita, coordinated to transportation of the Solar Panels from Ale’s Grand-Father’s house (storage location) to the Laundry.
Jorge, Ulisis, Felipe, Mauricio, and Tim, mounted the Solar Panels using the 20’ ladder. Ulisis tighten the Solar Panels to the Aluminum Triangles with the screws and using the allen keys. Ulisis left the screws a bit loose until the very end, to have some loose while connecting all the Solar Panels.
Later that day on Thursday, the Göbel Solar Mexico Team fixed two PVC pipes to pass the electrical cables from the Solar Panels and also the electrical cables from the main distribution electrical panel to the inversor. Ale went to Boxito to buy the 5-6mm diameter aluminium clamps to fix the pvc pipes, a bag of 8mm screw plugs and 50-60mm long screws.
In preparation to the installation of the next Solar System in Monica’s House located in Villa Magna, Teresita asked her brother Luis, for a machine to cut the aluminium rails. A person came and cut the rails for us at the Laundry. Once he cut the rails, Ulisis filed the aluminium rails to remove any left over aluminium to smooth off the cut.
Teresita then coordinated that Luis sent us a truck to carry the rails and 14 Solar Panels from the Laundry to Villa Magna.
Alfred had a first surprise once he looked more closely to the rails that they had received from the Solar Company. One of the rails got damaged during the trip, the rails were not the right model and also not the right lengths. It seemed that the Solar Company where Alfred had ordered the equipment had inversed the drawing and therefore the equipment they shipped was too short.
The L-Foot parts to hold the rails on the ceiling were also missing. Alfred rapidly thought of a plan B to make sure that they still could install the second Solar System within the next days. Ale called right away the Solar Company to order the missing L-foot parts. The company was able to ship the missing L-foot parts within the next day !
Equipment Needed:
- An Aluminum disk to cut aluminium rails: Garnier article 6TNC4 (page 1360), shaft 5/8″-11, 1/8″ thick, Type 25 aluminum oxide for general purpose 5′ 0.045″
- 2 Conduits/PVC green plastic pipes for electrical installation 25mm diameter and 9m long 29 Fixings for pipe (4 for each pipe)
- Rachet schlüssel of 14mm to tighted the screws
- 3 sets of Allen keys Standard Units (mm)
- 30 m long electrical cable with double insulation
- 23 m long electrical cable with double insulation
- A plane file for aluminium
- 10 pairs of tissue anti-skid gloves
DAY 4: Installing the Bottom Row of Solar Panels, the Inversor, and Connecting the Solar System to the Network!
To install the bottom row of Solar Panels, the Göbel Solar Mexico Team disassembled the third row of the scaffold, and moved the scaffold backward from the wall to leave space for the installation of the bottom aluminum triangles and the bottom row of solar panels.
The 30 m electrical cable passes through the top row aluminium triangles to connect the top row Solar Panels. The 23m electrical cable passes through the lower row of aluminium triangles to connect the lower row Solar Panels. That afternoon, Monica and Ale went to CFE to submit their request to change the metering at the Laundry to a bidirectional meter of medium tension VL28. Monica and Ale were lucky because the engineer in charge to change the meters was entering the office of Engineer L. Sanchez with whom they were submitting their request. Monica and Ale gave the number of the meter at the laundry to Engineer K. Velazco who was going to change the meters. He gave them his phone number and email address to coordinate the time he could pass by the next day to make the change. In some cases, CFE, does not have medium tension meters available, in that case, the owner most purchase a meter from various providers such as: Landis&Gyr or Siemens.
