Got fossil fuels???

[Guest]

and unfortunately , the grid needs back up, as painfully demonstrated here last week

[shtferbrains]

The story I hear from over there is they brought in the big portable plant that you see sitting at Tisdale and something cracked in the cold?
Had to sit till the new transformer came in and fully installed?

[AlbertaFarmer5]

We obviously missed the other obvious explanation for the angle of the panels.
Their angle is optimized for the sun being almost straight overhead.
The Brooks solar farm was starting to be built in April, finished in December.
In April, the sun is getting higher in the sky every day, as it has been doing for 4 months already.
The person( or team) in charge of panel angles was obviously a member of the same Church of Al Gore that Chuck is.
In these people's world, there is no such thing as cycles, every trend continues forever in the same direction. You see this in their global warming temperature projections every day. Start measuring at the bottom of the current warming cycle, and project that trend forever into the future, completely ignoring the cyclical nature of climate, or any evidence to the contrary, adjust the data when it doesn't fit.
As they observed the sun getting higher in the sky everyday all spring, they made the logical conclusion that the sun would keep getting higher forever, therefore pointing the panels straight up would save the effort of constantly adjusting the angle in the future. They created a computer model designed to confirm this.
Then June 21 came and went, the sun started getting lower again, so they adusted the data instead of the panels.
According to their models, the sun is now straight overhead.
Anyone who pointed out pointed out that the sun might just follow a cycle was branded a denier and fired.
They also concluded that snow would be a thing of the past thanks to the sun getting higher every day, so they refuse to sweep it off, as that would be acknowledging the continued existence of snow.

[chuckChuck]

Maybe they hired out of work Alberta petroleum "engineers" to design the system who decided it wouldn't work anyway, so why pay attention to details?

One solar system in one location does not tell the whole story of solar does it? Not to mention that prices are coming down and efficiency is going up.

And just so you don't forget solar is supplementary and requires backup.

[farming101]

Dispatcho....not very accurate.

Brooks BSC1 has produced 64,800,500 Kwh till the end of 2020.

Considering that the most output will be in the summer the designers may have decided that since the angle will be fixed they might as well set them for optimum summer angle

[fjlip]

Can there be TOO much added to the grid? Suddenly all the solar and wind cuts in and goes where? Surely that would pop circuits? Crazy amount of switching for sure.

[Guest]

Dispatcho....not very accurate.

Brooks BSC1 has produced 64,800,500 Kwh till the end of 2020.

Considering that the most output will be in the summer the designers may have decided that since the angle will be fixed they might as well set them for optimum summer angle

Well , that makes perfect sense , 101
Funny how a simple little explanation can explain so much more than pages upon pages of useless cut and paste propaganda

[burnt]

"World’s ‘solar and wind capital’ freezing due to snow ‘blanketing millions’ of solar panels"


https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6232075665001 https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6232075665001

[helmsdale]

On the AESO site the most interesting renewable project to watch is Vauxhall (located north of Taber AB)solar and the Halkirk (east of Stettler AB) wind farm. While most renewable project produce the square root of squat these ones are on the board with production more often than not.

The one I find most interesting is (SUF1) Suffield.

Currently producing 20 of 23 MW. Not sure if they are tilted/following panels, but they are about the only one that seems to reliably produce output. Brooks is a joke!

Capacity Factors over last 30 days:
(BSC1)Brooks: 3.8%
(VXH1)Vauxhall: 4.8%
(INF1)Innisfail: 5.3%
(HUL1)Vauxhall: 6.0%
(SUF1)Suffield: 11.3%

[ColevilleH2S]

Dispatcho....not very accurate.

Brooks BSC1 has produced 64,800,500 Kwh till the end of 2020.

Is that since inception? If so it only feeds about a 1/2 to 3/4ths of a million dollars a year into the grid. Not much when you consider it cost $30M to build.

Heck even if that's just 2020, that's still only $2.5M/year.

[TASFarms]

Oil company around kinderlsey is buying Bitcoin miners at $25000 a piece and making that in 6 months. Using the excess natural gas. That’s a lot better return than solar. Solar is Hoping that in 10 years that it made enough to cover the cost, with the help of tax payer money. No tax payer money going into Bitcoin miners needed.

[shtferbrains]

The one I find most interesting is (SUF1) Suffield.

Currently producing 20 of 23 MW. Not sure if they are tilted/following panels, but they are about the only one that seems to reliably produce output. Brooks is a joke!

Capacity Factors over last 30 days:
(BSC1)Brooks: 3.8%
(VXH1)Vauxhall: 4.8%
(INF1)Innisfail: 5.3%
(HUL1)Vauxhall: 6.0%
(SUF1)Suffield: 11.3%

Suffield production marketed by Bullfrog Power.
If you want geen power you pay your regular bill but sign up with them and they put "Vitual Power' into the grid and send you a bill for the exta charge for the virtuous power you want to buy.
Made my head spin trying to figure out how all thier dinky little projects can be profitable.
New green economy.
Reminds me of the WE water wells.

[Taiga]

Jet B to the rescue.

[farming101]

Is that since inception? If so it only feeds about a 1/2 to 3/4ths of a million dollars a year into the grid. Not much when you consider it cost $30M to build.

Heck even if that's just 2020, that's still only $2.5M/year.

Dec 14, 2017 start. What value are you putting on electricity produced?
They were installed at a 25 degree position. To my thinking,(and what do I know?) it seems too low. 34-39 degrees would increase the season length with some shading likely at lower winter solar angle. But if they're full of snow what good is it?
It was forecast to put out 24,000 MWH/yr. Coming in around 21,250

[oneoff]

The snow and ice should melt off once temperatures recover. I brush mine off regularly. If they are leaving snow and ice on all winter that will reduce production a lot.

The angle is too low for winter compared to mine. That will also reduce wintertime production. Some arrays can easily adjust the angle seasonally

According to Dispatcho the Brooks solar site has made 46.26 Gwh of electricity since it was built.

Take a look at Dispatcho for yourself.

https://www.dispatcho.app/live/BSC1?r=76782840 https://www.dispatcho.app/live/BSC1?r=76782840

Yup solar still needs complete backup. But when the sun is shining what solar produces can be matched to load requirements which displaces grid supply. Wasn't there some irrigation farmers in Alberta who installed solar to offset some of their high electricity costs.

And when one looks at Dispatcho and the 15MW installed Brooks BCS1 site they find a grid connection date of Dec 5/2017. No production was recorded until approx 8 months later; ie Sept 10/2018.

Since then some obvious pattern have emerged within the reported 46.26 Gwh of productions. If the years is divided into a "winter period" lasting from beginning of October to the end of February (five months"....and a "summer period" of the remaining 7 months (Mar 1 to Sept 30) it yields pretty clear results. These figures are taken from the Dispatcho data and the few days production here and there that don't seem fair; help out the dismal "winter production data" periods

from 09/10/2018 to 02/28/19 3.925 GWh production
03/01/19 to 09/30/19 17.48 GWh produced
from 10/01/19 to 03/01/20 4.0001 GWh reported
from 03/01/20 to 09/30/20 18.15GWh
from 09/30/20 to today 2.744Gwh

That all adds up to grand total reported production of 46.30 GWh which should be agreed is plenty close enough to everyone's 46.26 GWh

With those facts agreed to...the analysis can begin.

There is none of this solar energy available to charge electric vehicles; or service any consumer needs after about 4:00pm to close to next morning beginning close to 11:00am for December and January.
It improve somewhat on either side of the Dec-Jan period; albiet intermittently. Even in the "Summer period" solar panels can't produce during what is known as nightime.. Of course that contributes greatly to the shortfall of boiler plates rating of 15 MWatts of solar panel capacity that operated for some two years and 5 months (aka as 2 and 5/12 yrs. or about 20880 hours). With continuous production I calculate that should be 313.2GWh and as previously shown only 46.26GWh ever produced.

But 15 MW boiler plate is more impressive to some. Design everything for the maximum and settle for a slim fraction of that amount. AND Bill to the utility and customer and take credit for supposedly how cheaply the solar power is produced.

And sure the ice and snow will melt off eventually and surely it makes no sense to sweep off acres of panels; and adding actuators to follow the sun add costs and complications that make no practical or economic sense in real situations.

And you bet that solar requires backup; and you bet that despite the flaws and strains on present utility grids; intermittent electrical generation is largely getting a free ride.
Give the steering wheel back to the experienced driver until these usurpers can prove their worth