Solar ... In the news

zeupater

Martyn1981 wrote: »

...
And for an example, that will hopefully 'tickle' the old-hands, let's look at potatoes (:D):

Potato producer peels back energy costs with 681kWp rooftop plant ....

Not really surprising .... two potato farmers, which I know quite well, installed close to 200kWp in total about 2½ years ago .... the energy comes in very handy for various processes around the farms and the 'green' credentials increase their performance ratings with their large commercial customers.


Z

Cardew

Martyn1981 wrote: »

And for an example, that will hopefully 'tickle' the old-hands, let's look at potatoes (:D):

I knew you would see the relevance - eventually::D

The_Green_Hornet

Anyone spot the flaws in this article entitled "How 'money-saving' solar panels actually INCREASED my heating bills by 220 per cent!"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2559902/How-money-saving-solar-panels-actually-INCREASED-heating-bills-220-cent.html#readerCommentsCommand-message-field

EricMears

One chap referred to a 9Kw boiler - which is pretty small by gas boiler standards so I assume he meant '9Kw electric boiler'. It would be something of a miracle to be generating 9Kw per flat of 'free' electricity at midday in June; impossible to do so when it's cold and dark ! Another resident is pictured next to an air source heat pump but again there just wouldn't be the free electricity to run that when it's needed (though it might be useful for cooling the place in summer).


But I wouldn't really attribute blame to the Daily Mail - they're probably just reporting (without explanation) what is happening because of some seriously flawed scheme.

The_Green_Hornet

"Horror at the world's largest solar farm days after it opens as it is revealed panels are SCORCHING birds that fly over them"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2560494/Worlds-largest-solar-farm-SCORCHING-BIRDS-fly-it.html

mac2008

The_Green_Hornet wrote: »

Anyone spot the flaws in this article entitled "How 'money-saving' solar panels actually INCREASED my heating bills by 220 per cent!"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2559902/How-money-saving-solar-panels-actually-INCREASED-heating-bills-220-cent.html#readerCommentsCommand-message-field

Very confused article even by Daily Fail standards - I honestly can't make out what they are talking about? Have they replaced old gas heating systems with heat pumps or electric heating and solar PV or something?

And yes, as Eric has pointed out, good luck heating a house, let alone the Albert Hall with a 9kW 'boiler'.

I'd welcome quality debate about renewables, subsidies for PV etc. but as usual the quality of public debate driven by 'newspapers' is abysmal.

Martyn1981

or do those panels look a little odd:

http://www.trienergia.com/projects

Pottering away, as I do, I came across these triangular PV panels. Interesting.

Found a site selling them (I have no association to the site)

http://www.swithenbanks.co.uk/shop.php?c1=Solar%20Photovoltaic%20Equipment&c2=Solar%20Panels&c3=Trienergia

They have triangles, and 'near' squares, designed to work with hipped rooves. The prices look a little more expensive, but not overly expensive.

I'd think that they'd not only increase the useable space offered by a hipped roof, but also improve the aesthetics by filling in all the previously unused triangles.

Neat idea.

Mart.

Martyn1981

Momentum keeps on building, progress is being made, now it's time for Elon Musk to 'drive' it forward:

Tesla could drive energy storage price revolution

Plans for the Tesla Gigafactory to manufacture as many lith-ion battery packs as the rest of the world produces have caught the energy storage industry's attention. The resulting economies of scale could affect customers far beyond EV drivers.

The release of U.S. electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Tesla's full year and fourth quarter results last week has prompted fevered speculation the company's proposed 'Gigafactory' could prove a game-changer for energy storage.

The final paragraph in Tesla founder, chairman and CEO Elon Musk's letter to investors states the company will be able to announce details of its plans for a gigawatt-scale battery factory 'very shortly', adding the facility will enable the EV company to address 'the solar power industry's need for a massive volume of stationary battery packs.'

Mart.

mac2008

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Momentum keeps on building, progress is being made, now it's time for Elon Musk to 'drive' it forward:

Tesla could drive energy storage price revolution



Mart.

Well with a CEO with a name like that, how can they fail?! But seriously, this is great news. The oft-quoted criticism of PV contributing nothing at periods of peak demand has always been, in my view, technically correct but short-sighted. By providing subsidies comparable or less than those for other carbon-based generation, we now have GW's of solar panels, just waiting for storage tech to catch up.

Now all the government need to do is offer some kind of scrapage scheme to add some integrated storage when replacing my dead inverter in a decade or so.

Martyn1981

Much anti-PV myth and nonsense gets posted on here, but one of my favourites is the regularly repeated (every 6 months or so) claim that PV doesn't repay it's embedded energy during it's whole lifetime.

Well here are some new numbers from The Bavarian Institute of Applied Environmental Research and Technology:

Study reveals solar’s ‘energy payback’ time is 0.55 to 1.3 years

The Bavarian Institute of Applied Environmental Research and Technology (bifa) environmental institute in Germany has published an eco-efficiency analysis of solar PV which reveals that the energy payback time for the technology ranges from 0.55 to 1.3 years.

The paper examines the impact of solar PV on the environment, taking into account the whole solar life cycle including manufacturing, operation and recycling.

The study analysed the various payback times of wafer-based (silicon) and thin-film systems across residential, commercial and utility-scale applications.

Mart.