Solar ... In the news

silverwhistle

JKenH wrote: »

I think you are being a bit unsympathetic to the victims here.

Possibly, and I don't like victim blaming, hence I did say lack of common sense as opposed to harsher language. But the figures they were quoting were pretty large. I paid £6K for 4kWp and that's a large amount of money for me, more than I've ever spent on a car, so I took a bit of care over it.



I'm not sure where 'ordinary working class people' comes in to it - plenty of scams target the well off middle classes too.

silverwhistle

zeupater wrote: »

Last time I looked there were sheep gratefully sheltering from the sun's rays, but I've seen Dexters (small cattle) mowing the lawn as a 'service' just as efficiently!

Don't pigs suffer from sunburn??


I read a recent article about the resurrection of mixed farming with woodland on an estate in Portugal, which had considerable benefits to the environment with the shade and shelter the woodland provided over the previous monoculture. Perhaps PV could have similar impacts in such hot climates? Could PV protect from torrential downpours when it does rain and have guttering to collect the water and direct it to recharge pits?

zeupater

silverwhistle wrote: »

Don't pigs suffer from sunburn??

I read a recent article about the resurrection of mixed farming with woodland on an estate in Portugal, which had considerable benefits to the environment with the shade and shelter the woodland provided over the previous monoculture. Perhaps PV could have similar impacts in such hot climates? Could PV protect from torrential downpours when it does rain and have guttering to collect the water and direct it to recharge pits?

Hi

Re: Pigs .... They do have a tendency to mess up the ground a little more than most as they do far more than simply graze grass & occasionally you'll get one that decides it'll be 'fun' to see how deep it's possible to dig so they'd probably need to be restricted from particular 'sensitive' areas with electric fences, which seems to go against the reasoning for having livestock in the field in the first place ...

I suppose it's simply a case of how you'd weigh the relative benefits of pork scratchings becoming a third income stream against the increased cost of maintaining cables & ground-mount structures .... but I think that the main consideration would revolve around taking VIPs on tours around an expensive installation located in maintained grassland wearing everyday shoes & a Somme-like quagmire wearing wellies ....

HTH
Z

Exiled_Tyke

An interesting take on the history of PV.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49344595

Martyn1981

Exiled_Tyke wrote: »

An interesting take on the history of PV.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49344595

Thanks. I'm glad they mentioned the subsidy part though I feel for Italy as they were essential in the early days, not just Germany. PV sat at way too expensive for decades, but with some artificial demand to boost supply the price instantly tumbled. I'm not sure how it could have / would have progressed without some market manipulation.

Boring repetition warning - I've probably said this a 100 times already, but PV still blows my mind how it got so cheap, from so expensive, so fast, not complaining, just never expected the costs to fall that fast.

silverwhistle

zeupater wrote: »

I suppose it's simply a case of how you'd weigh the relative benefits of pork scratchings becoming a third income stream against the increased cost of maintaining cables & ground-mount structures ...

Thanks! Yes, I'm aware of pigs' propensities, but I hadn't considered the VIP visits..


If only you could keep pigs where you want them. I took on a new allotment a few weeks ago and could really do with some assistance digging.

Martyn1981

In the case of pigs and chickens, the solution seems to be to build sheds, with PV on the roof. More expensive than a simple shed, or simple ground mount PV, but cheaper than the sum of the two.

TBF all I'm describing is large ground mounts, that are then boxed in for a secondary purpose.

If you Google 'pig shed PV' or 'chicken shed PV' and choose images you will see loads of examples from small DIY sheds, to vast commercial ones.

Dave_Fowler

Martyn1981 wrote: »

In the case of pigs and chickens, the solution seems to be to build sheds, with PV on the roof. More expensive than a simple shed, or simple ground mount PV, but cheaper than the sum of the two.

TBF all I'm describing is large ground mounts, that are then boxed in for a secondary purpose.

If you Google 'pig shed PV' or 'chicken shed PV' and choose images you will see loads of examples from small DIY sheds, to vast commercial ones.

I've just returned from a few days in France. There are quite a few examples of where farmers were refused permission to build large ground mounted arrays, so they have built enormous barns (three or four on each farm) and then covered the roof with hundreds if not thousands of solar panels. This solved the problem of getting permission - it appears farm buildings are almost exempt from planning regulations - and also allows the farms to make use of the land under the panels for storage or whatever they wish to do with the enclosed spaces.

Dave F

Reed_Richards

Dave_Fowler wrote: »

- it appears farm buildings are almost exempt from planning regulations -

It's much the same here: https://www.gov.uk/planning-permissions-for-farms/permitted-development

Martyn1981

Flippin eck, solar and storage contracted in the US at 3.3c/kWh.

LA & 8Minute Solar Ink Lowest Cost Solar-Plus-Storage Deal In US History

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has signed a groundbreaking 25-year power purchase agreement with 8Minute Solar. The deal will make possible the largest municipal solar plus storage facility in the US. But the best part is the combined price for solar energy plus storage is just 3.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, the lowest ever in the US and cheaper than electricity from a natural gas powered generating plant.

The electricity will come from a massive solar power plant located on 2000 acres of undeveloped desert in Kern County, just 70 miles from the city. Known as the Eland Solar and Storage Center, it will be built in two stages of 200 MW each, with the first coming online in 2022 and the second phase scheduled to be switched on the following year.

Los Angeles DWP will take 375 MWac of solar power coupled with 385.5 MW/1,150 MWh of energy storage, according to PV Magazine. Neighboring Glendale Water and Power will take 25 MWac of solar plus 12.5 MW/50 MWh of energy. The electricity from Eland I and II is expected to meet between 6 and 7% of Los Angeles’ needs, according to PV Magazine.