Solar and Wind projects

[Carlb]

We currently have 10kw of Solar on our home a 1.8kw wind turbine and two solar air heaters.  We are planning to put another 10kw of solar (PV) and another 80 sq/ft hot air heater.  If any one is interested I can post some pics, if I can figure out how.

Carl

[wrightkiller]

Carl: pictures would be cool .what kind of solar air heaters do you have....

[Carlb]

Both solar air heaters are home built to fit the house.  One is about 54 sq/ft the other is 125 sq/ft.  They produce about 30 of our heat in the winter.  Solar heater number 3 is in the planning stages and it will be 80 sq/ft.
I will upload some pics when I get a chance.

Carl

[WGB]

10KW!! man that cost some jack!

[rbodell]

10KW!! man that cost some jack!

Yes it does cost, but the maintenance is almost zero with the exception of hosing it off if there is a long drought maybe. I have a small solar backup system and haven't touched it since installation.

[rbodell]

Something I thought I would mention about new solar installations, especially large expensive ones. If you are considering a new roof mounted solar system, consider the life left in your roof. If you only have 5 or 10 years left in your roof, you might want to replace the section where your 25 year panels will be mounted. It really sucks to have to remove them to fix a leaky roof.

[Carlb]

Here is a picture of my Solar PV's, Solar hot air and wind turbine.

Carl

[jkrobbie]

You have a 10Kw PV system AND a windmill?  Are you on or off-grid?  If on-grid, do you have net metering?  I guess what I'm getting around to asking is, why such a big system?

BTW, I'm off-grid with 680w of PV.  I also have an Air-X 400w windmill and a 200w homebuilt unit.  Neither of the windmills is currently installed since I get all the power I need with only the PV.  I do have generator(s) backup for those emergencies and when I'm running high draw power tools.

robbie

[Carlb]

I am grid connected and we have net metering as well as the ability to generate renewable energy certificates which we can sell back to the utilities so that they can meet their commitment  to the state for the "generation of renewable energy"

The system is so large because we have a pretty large house and we use an air source heat pump as our primary heat  in winter and central air in the summer.

We may be adding another 10kw of solar so that we can generate more renewable energy credits.  The current selling price in New Jersey for 1 renewable energy credit is around 670 dollars and our 10kw system generated 13 certificates last year 13@ 670 each = 8710  and offset about 2000 dollars of electricity cost 13,000khw @ .155 per kwh =   2015 dollars.


Carl

[jkrobbie]

It would take a while for the system to pay for itself, even with the credits, but that's not why people install solar when they're tied to the grid, is it?

[Carlb]

It took less than 3 years to get paid back for the install.  The state subsidized the install to the tune of 60% which means my out of pocket for the 10 kw was less than 30,000 dollars, we are realizing a 10,000 dollar yearly return on our investment.  After three years the system had paid for itself ( we installed in late 2004)

We are now in the permitting process to install another 10kw system (ground mount array) and hope to have in done by the end of the year.

Carl

[dubbleUJay]

<sigh> must be nice to have a government that supports alternative energy.

Up here in the great white north, the government kicks in a tiny tiny token amount and as far as I know there is no trade in carbon offset credits.

Jens

You guys are in the "pound seats"!

In my neck of the woods, ZA, the power utility, (Government has 100% shares) subsidized CFL lights to the extend of about 10%.
The power utility did so well financially since "independence day", they forgot to upgrade and maintain the national grid while the fat cats were overseas on holiday with their new found wealth.
Now the money is gone and the grid failed, "forcing" them to increase the costs of electricity down to the consumers at a rate of about 100% over the last 18 months!
We had country wide power failures a while back and were told by our Minister of "Sparky" to go to bed earlier! ( If I recall correctly, this was just after our Minister of "AIDS" told us to eat carrots)
Obviously this great survival tips were relayed to the public via TV transmissions, because ours works with petrol/paraffin 
All this while they were still supplying our neighboring countries like Zim with low-cost electricity, so that Robert's army can see where they are shooting at night! 
At least the "over-rated" (IMHO) 2010 Soccer World Cup stadiums would have power next year, as they recently realized that they better double up on the standby generators at each venue before making their name @$$!
Hopefully they would have money leftover for fuel.
I'm way of topic now... but they did/do speak a lot of "wind"

[dubbleUJay]

What are "pound seats" ??

Jens

Hi Jens, I was a bit grumpy this mornin', sorry 

I meant you guys are much better off than me if I told you what its like over here. Tong in the cheek, sort of 

Pound Seats i.e. $$$ Seats, better of exec.

dubbleUJay

[jkrobbie]

As someone else wrote, I wish our government (USA) would subsidize to that extent.  I did manage to get some tax rebates on my solar install (which ended up being pretty nice), but not to your tune.  It would take 20 years or so to get payback on your type of system here. 

I can't netmeter because of my location (3 miles form power lines), but have friends who do.  They get the low end of the wholesale price of electricity.  I think that's in the neighborhood of 6 cents per kW

robbie

[Rom]

Sounds like doubleuJay and I are in a similar boat. Being in the Bahamas, and BEC (Bahamas Electricity Corp) being a government entity, we are actually fined US$ 3000.00 for having a grid tied system. Obviously having a solar system with the capacity to run say, a 4 ton A/c unit, is completely uneconomical. They only just removed the custom duties of 100% (luxury items) on solar panels a year or 2 ago.
It is a stupid system here... they actually broke ground a month ago to install a 50MW bunker C power station in my area. We are currently powered by a 28MW Diesel plant, and do to ministers giving jobs to their buddies, this system... is supposedly undersized now with the new growth. We are in the worst tourist slump since the late 80's with most every motel hotel type place empty... yet they say they dont have the power to run us now. 6 generators out of 12 running, but its cheaper to build a new plant and the infrastructure for 105million instead of repairing the 6 generators? We all know the reason is to create jobs for the select few to win the next election.
Corruption at its finist.

Rom