Posts tagged energy
Solar Powered
1366 watts per square meter, baby
Although panel prices have plummeted in the past five years, installling a rooftop system in the U.S. costs twice as much as it does in Germany. (via Join the Solar Freedom Cause to Reduce Rooftop Installation Costs by 50% | megcichon)
Germany: More renewables, less coal, less nukes.
… but Germany’s a lot lower. We don’t need cheaper panels, we need better selling/permitting/installation processes.
Solar costs continue to drop (the blended cost is up due to a change in mix)
New England Electricity Demand
I pulled together a simple GSpreadsheet that pulls 5 minute data of ISO-NE electrical demand (using the useful but clunky importdata function). My interest is the timing of peak demand on days with high demand- like June 20-22, 2012. I’m looking to assess how well local solar PV production lines up with demand on these days. The more they line up, the higher the economic value of solar PV production.
This graph should be dynamic:
Concord, MA Solar Output Data
Here’s output from 5 in-town solar systems for a single day (which day is a parameter on the underlying Google spreadsheet, which I haven’t published yet). This is but a small fraction of the installations in town; these are ones that upload data to pvoutput.org. I’m working on feeds for other, bigger systems, plus New England grid (ISO-NE) demand. The latter’s relevant for assessing how well solar helps shave demand peaks.
I’m not sure if the graph below is static or will update with the spreadsheet; we’ll see-
Way to (not) be forward looking, Senator Brown
Does the calculation for fossil fuel cost include the portion of the Defense budget required to support our reliance on petroleum products?
(via The Pentagon is stopped from going green - Opinion - The Boston Globe)
Brief article on the net metering debate-
(via Solar Payments Set Off a Fairness Debate - NYTimes.com)
The price of gasoline when Barack Obama became president was $1.89. All of this gigantic increase came from his policies.
When you think about it, Gingrich may be partially right. Obama -> stimulus -> economic recovery -> higher oil demand -> higher oil prices -> higher gas prices. So, what Gingrich is really saying is that ARRA worked. Right?
This is what I’ve been banging the drums about: solar provides cheap peak load power! (via Solar PV Reducing Price of Electricity in Germany - CleanTechnica)
Currently, CVEC has installed 670 KW of solar and is developing solar projects in nine member host towns with an estimated total capacity of 16 MW. CVEC intends to issue a Request For Proposals (“RFP”) later this month for up to an additional 40 MW of solar projects to be located within its member towns.
I found this little nugget in a comment regarding MA’s net metering rules. Nearly 60 MW of solar in the works or planned for CVEC (Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative)? Not bad…
http://www.env.state.ma.us/dpu/docs/electric/11-10/9611clccom.pdf
Well that’s just great. How about we plan a gradual phase-out of the PTC and stick with it? Politically naive, I know. (via Cape Wind Gets a Big Break As Wind’s Tax Break Gets Stopped : Greentech Media)
Palo Alto Feed-In-Tariff for PV: The city will pay $0.14 per kilowatt-hour for 20-year contracts. (via Feed-In Tariff for PV in Palo Alto, Calif. Imminent : Greentech Media)
“It’s the world’s first pee-powered Christmas tree” (via Hydrovolts Finds Current Energy Where It Wasn’t Possible Before : Greentech Media)
32MW Long Island Solar Farm (by LIPowerAuthority)
