Estevan considered for solar power

[chuckChuck]

Sounds like the presentation in Brandon was good. Manitoba offers a better program. SaskPower will rebate only 20%. I think it is in the range of being a decent investment. Installed costs are around $3.60 per watt in SK. One Alberta company said around $3.00 per watt.

Using flared gas is a good idea. I think some of the oil companies have some gas generators going. I wonder if the push to reduce methane emissions will push the use of more gas generators where gas lines aren't available? Is raw gas always usable?

[Hamloc]

Chuck2 3.60 a watt x 10000 watts = 36000 dollars. This system on average should produce 1000 kwh per month over the course of a year. 12000 kwh x 11.2 cents a kilowatt = 1344 dollars per year. 36000/1344 = 26.78 years. Yup that works lol. In Alberta a farmer can get 25% of his system payed for but off the top of my head I can't remember the maximum. Obviously will have to be subsidized to get people to do it. Either subsidized rates or subsidized installation costs. Is this an important use of our taxes?

[tweety]

Hamloc have you considered Geothermal for your shop? Depending on the temperature you want the shop to be, that may be a much better answer then solar to electric heat. Its a lot harder to heat a house then just warming a shop to about 5 degrees with lines in the floor. Contact CSI at lakeland college for solid information.

That's the plan for my shop. Solar can turn the pumps when they can, grid when not. Not about saving a dollar, this stuff is kinda fun.

[chuckChuck]

Hamloc, One installer in Alberta said $3.00 per watt installed for 20Kw system last November. So for 10Kw it might be a bit more.

So just for the sake of argument lets say $30,000 investment for 10Kw. I put a 10 Kw system into the solar calculator at Estevan Sask, and the output with a system that is seasonally tilted but for the calculators purpose is fixed at 45 degrees output is 18730 Kwh per year times 11.8 Kwh cents in Saskatchewan and revenue is about $ 2200 per year.

But remember the price of power has been going up 3% per year so by year 30 the estimated price will be 25.4 cents per Kwh and you will be earning the equivalent of $4757.00 per year. The panels lose some ability to generate as much power so you will be generating less than 18730 kwh.

But by year 10 you are already earning the equivalent $3000 per year.

I think Boyd Solar estimated the 30 year cost of Solar PV is 10 cents per Kwh so all you are doing is locking in electricity prices for 30 years at about 10 cents per kwh which is cheaper that what Saskpower is charging now.

Alberta pays differently so it might not work there.

[tweety]

To get some scope of just how big installations are lately have a look at the current top ten. Wow!

[URL="http://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/top-10-solar-photovoltaic-plants-in-the-world"]http://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/top-10-solar-photovoltaic-plants-in-the-world[/URL]

China has one at 1280 MW by the Longyangxia dam. Makes the last 8 pages about a 10 MW shard here in SK a complete waste of energy reading.

[chuckChuck]

To get some scope of just how big installations are lately have a look at the current top ten. Wow!

[URL="http://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/top-10-solar-photovoltaic-plants-in-the-world"]http://www.imeche.org/news/news-article/top-10-solar-photovoltaic-plants-in-the-world[/URL]

China has one at 1280 MW by the Longyangxia dam. Makes the last 8 pages about a 10 MW shard here in SK a complete waste of energy reading.

Just heard from from a clean tech guy on the tv who said wind and solar are coming in at 2-3 cents per kWh in some parts of the world. Probably India and China where they are expanding generating capacity rapidly. Still need to solve the storage issue but that will undoubtedly occur.

[Bobjones]

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[greenhouse]

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