its a megawatt!

HalloweenJack

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system install date was december 6th 2011 so near to it 6 months and its now generated a megawatt!

2kw system , 10 x suvelo 200w panels , sunny boy 1700 invertor , 178 degree south facing 50 degree pitch roof

grahamc2003

A MW is wishfull thinking for a 2kW system. The inverter is telling you you've generated a MWh (megawatt hour) of energy.

Interestingly (or maybe not), Drax at full whack generates your 6 month output in just over a second.

Or, put another way, you'd need about 2 million of your (and my) sized systems at full power to match Drax at full power.

HalloweenJack

aye i know (lol) - 6 months to generate that , but still - a happy `milestone` - maybe take all these panels and stick them in a field in south west england

Didnt know that about DRAX - but given nuclear stations are being quietly sidelined , lack of companies wanting to build them, what will replace the equipment being turned off!


*barrage* cough

Martyn1981

Congrats HJ. So approx 2MWh pa from 2kWp, that's some pretty good generation. Role on the next 69 (40 years?).

Oh, and there's still three companies interested in building nukes, E, D & F!

Mart.

KevinG

You've done pretty well there, my 2kWp system has generated 886.7kWh since 6th December, roughly SSE facing, 37 degree pitch.

Blossom2528

grahamc2003 wrote: »

Or, put another way, you'd need about 2 million of your (and my) sized systems at full power to match Drax at full power.

How many Drax's, probably Europes dirtiest power station, would it take to match German PV around midday in late May when they broke the world record, over 20GW? Haven't they already installed the UK's target for 2020?

jamesingram

1 GW PV currently installed UK

Bloomberg has published this report:
http://www.bnef.com/WhitePapers/download/82
Claims PV is already cheaper than conventional electricity in Australia,Denmark,Germany,Hawaii,Italy and Spain.

Martyn1981

jamesingram wrote: »

1 GW PV currently installed UK

Bloomberg has published this report:
http://www.bnef.com/WhitePapers/download/82
Claims PV is already cheaper than conventional electricity in Australia,Denmark,Germany,Hawaii,Italy and Spain.

James, that's a fascinating report. Glad I did a speed reading course many, many years ago!

Here's some more numbers to keep you thinking, what does a unit of domestic PV leccy cost today v's a unit of new nuke leccy?

PV, 4kWp, generating a modest 3,200kWh's pa, and install costing £7k. Assume PV output drops to 80% in 25 years, and a new inverter is needed during that period.

£8k (£7k + £1k) divided by 3200 * 25 years * 0.9 (average output) =

£8k / 72,000 = 11p/kWh

or 40 years, 2 inverters, and dropping to 75% output

£9k / 3200 * 40 * 0.875 =

£9k / 112,000 = 8p

Excluding the cost of insurance and decommissioning, best guesses at nuclear are between 10p and 13p per kWh. Plus a 10 to 12 year wait!

PV prices are still falling, nuclear prices have bottomed.

Mart.

Ben84

Blossom2528 wrote: »

How many Drax's, probably Europes dirtiest power station, would it take to match German PV around midday in late May when they broke the world record, over 20GW? Haven't they already installed the UK's target for 2020?

I visited Drax some years ago. I remember a few things, mainly the vast size of the plant and the huge volume of coal it burns every day, but also that it's quite an efficient coal plant. So, it depends how you define dirtiest power plant. On a per kWh produced basis it's one of the better coal plants, but as a coal plant it compares badly to gas or nuclear plants because of the fuel it burns.

jamesingram

From the horses mouth
"We have committed to a £100 million capital investment programme to upgrade our high pressure and low pressure turbines. The result will be an improvement in our overall baseload efficiency of 5%, taking it towards 40%, and an annual saving of one million tonnes of CO2."
http://www.draxgroup.plc.uk/corporate_responsibility/climatechange/efficiency/

So converts primary fuel to electricial energy at 40% efficiency.
Doesn't sound that good to me

At least half the coal comes from South africa or siberia.
"It is Britain's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide – about 22m tonnes in a typical year. It emits as much CO2 as one-quarter of all Britain's cars, and more than all the planes taking off from Heathrow in a year. It emits more than the whole of Sweden."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/25/greenwash-drax-power-plant

http://www.sandbag.org.uk/maps/emissionsmap/?place=empty
type drax into search for carbon trading info

EricMears

jamesingram wrote: »

So converts primary fuel to electricial energy at 40% efficiency.
Doesn't sound that good to me

By coal fired power station standards it's pretty good.

All very well to say that we ought to try and get better efficiencies but it's rather difficult to see how that might happen. Closing Drax down would probably reduce the overall efficiency of the nation's generating capacity AND leave us with a huge gap in the amount of power citizens want to use and our ability to supply it.

By comparison, Solar Panels convert sunlight to electrical energy at something like 15% efficiency.