For the solar doubters

[ALBERTAFARMER4]

Solar and wind are definitely the future but powering a pivot with solar is not very financially sound. I think the best way to get value out of a solar system right now is by taking your house off the grid or using solar energy to charge an electric car. With grid tie systems it's also important to note that you will not be generating any power in a power outage. This is called anti-islanding and prevents electricity from being put into the grid when the grid is down or being serviced.

In ontario they have time of use billing so when your array is operating at its peak the price of the electricity you are selling is also at its peak. This is where grid tie with battery would be an advantage as you would sell electricity at the highest price and charge a battery at night time when the price is the lowest.

The best way to figure it out is go to [URL="http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/index.php"]http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/index.php[/URL] and put in your array size and location to figure out how much energy it will generate over the year. If it can't pay for itself before the warranty of the equipment has expired it's probably not a great deal. Quick example..

7.5kw residential grid tie system
3$/watt installed = $22,500
Energy generated per year $400
You will still have a monthly bill lets say you are net zero and generate the amount you use. Lets say you have a $100 monthly bill with $30 being the actual electricity consumption. So your system would save you $30 a month. $22,500/$30 = 750 months or 62.5 years. Assuming the price of power stays the same (which it probably won't) but you get the idea.

[RD414]

So how much tax should you be paying to the RM for a one million dollar investment?

[Hamloc]

I'm not a solar doubter by any means, but you have to look into it further. This $400,000 solar system produces $8,000 of energy per year. You do the math. Also any grid tied system will still have a power bill and if you've looked at one of those recently you'll notice that the electricity used is the smallest part of the bill. Alberta has some of the cheapest electricity (0.04/kwh or less) in the world so why spend lots of money to generate it?

Remember it really doesn't matter if it makes economic or financial sense it is the right thing to do. Besides we need to create jobs in China or the Philippines building solar panels. Unemployed Albertan's can feel good knowing that while they are busy restructuring debt or selling assets to survive that workers in other countries are prospering. Enjoy your day!

[grassfarmer]

Grassfarmer I remember reading an article comparing the monthly electrical bill across Canada. Alberta was about $113 Ontario was about $200 for the same amount of electricity. So I disagree.

I remember blackpowder posting his recent power bill which I compared to mine. We were way less than half the AB price if I remember correctly.