Thread: Solar electricity production

For those interested in solar grid connected systems - I have been doing a bit of research into this lately. The federal government has just recently increased the rebate for grid connected solar systems from $4 per watt to $8 per watt up to 1000 watts. There are a couple of stipulations that go with that , look up EPA solar homes project. Added bonus for Queenslanders is that the state government has legistated a price of 44c per kilowatt hour returned to the grid, you buy in electricity at 16 odd cents per kilowatt hour. The price for a 1kw system seems to range between $8500 to $13000. Might be close to becoming economicaly viable for small households.

Originally Posted by JamesB

For those interested in solar grid connected systems - I have been doing a bit of research into this lately. The federal government has just recently increased the rebate for grid connected solar systems from $4 per watt to $8 per watt up to 1000 watts. There are a couple of stipulations that go with that , look up EPA solar homes project. Added bonus for Queenslanders is that the state government has legistated a price of 44c per kilowatt hour returned to the grid, you buy in electricity at 16 odd cents per kilowatt hour. The price for a 1kw system seems to range between $8500 to $13000. Might be close to becoming economicaly viable for small households.

you are forgetting about all the hidden costs associated with photovoltiac setups.

Maximum lifespan of panels = 25yrs, but they do degrade over time, the best way would be to replace them after 15yrs with new ones

Battery banks are the same degrading over time and they are not cheap, they make D2 batteries look dirt cheap

Controllers again not a cheap excercise, they only have a couple of years worth of warrantee

Inverters same situation, unless you go to the expense of buying low voltage appliances, no plasma screens in that shop, nor air conditioners.

Having your house rewired to run 12v, and having a gen set for backup, is not an option for me, I have mates who live like this.

The 28c/kw profit would be swallowed up by your ongoing running costs, then no doubt there would be a tax associated with the profit. You could not make money from this sham.




You not only have to have the technology and sit back and rake in the dosh, you have to change your lifestyle to make this work out in your favour.

Originally Posted by dobbo

you are forgetting about all the hidden costs associated with photovoltiac setups.

Maximum lifespan of panels = 25yrs, but they do degrade over time, the best way would be to replace them after 15yrs with new ones

Battery banks are the same degrading over time and they are not cheap, they make D2 batteries look dirt cheap

Controllers again not a cheap excercise, they only have a couple of years worth of warrantee

Inverters same situation, unless you go to the expense of buying low voltage appliances, no plasma screens in that shop, nor air conditioners.

Having your house rewired to run 12v, and having a gen set for backup, is not an option for me, I have mates who live like this.

The 28c/kw profit would be swallowed up by your ongoing running costs, then no doubt there would be a tax associated with the profit. You could not make money from this sham.




You not only have to have the technology and sit back and rake in the dosh, you have to change your lifestyle to make this work out in your favour.

You are missing the point. JamesB is talking about grid connected systems. Basically your house is just connected to the grid. You use whatever power you like just like a normal house.

However, you also happen to have a number of solar cells on the roof, and have an inverter that pushes power back into the grid, and this is metered. So, you've got no batteries, no fear of cloudy days, no worries about the lights going out at 10pm etc etc.

Originally Posted by dobbo

you are forgetting about all the hidden costs associated with photovoltiac setups.

Maximum lifespan of panels = 25yrs, but they do degrade over time, the best way would be to replace them after 15yrs with new ones

My panels are 14 years old, and have shown no measurable decrease in output. Two out of a total of twenty panels have failed out of warranty. Theere would seem to be no justification for suggesting a 15 year replacement time period.

Battery banks are the same degrading over time and they are not cheap, they make D2 batteries look dirt cheap

Batteries are the real killer - I have 24 cellsand last time I looked the price was around $500 each.

Controllers again not a cheap excercise, they only have a couple of years worth of warrantee

Despite only a couple of years warranty, mine have given no trouble in fourteen years, and I do not expect them to. Also, compared to the rest of the system, they are cheap (a replacement for mine would be $230 for one brand, as an example. If I ran on 12 instead of 24v, a suitable one would be less than $100.

Inverters same situation, unless you go to the expense of buying low voltage appliances, no plasma screens in that shop, nor air conditioners.

My inverters have given no trouble out of warranty (one failed after the first day). They are now less than half the price they were fourteen years ago, and probably better as well. I would not even consider using low voltage appliances, (although my house has 12v distributed it is used only for the UHF), as they are very expensive and there is very little choice - for the same money overall you can spend the money you save on appliances on a bigger solar system to cope with the inefficiency of the inverter. But you can forget airconditioning for any realistic solar photovoltaic system, same with a coolroom.


Having your house rewired to run 12v, and having a gen set for backup, is not an option for me, I have mates who live like this.

The 28c/kw profit would be swallowed up by your ongoing running costs, then no doubt there would be a tax associated with the profit. You could not make money from this sham.

I'll go along with this, but bear in mind that the price of grid power can be expected to increase fairly dramatically with carbon emission trading, so the economics are only going to get better.


You not only have to have the technology and sit back and rake in the dosh, you have to change your lifestyle to make this work out in your favour.

Agreed. Also, you need to be reasonably technically knowledgeable, particularly if you are out of town, otherwise you will end up spending a fortune on paying experts to fix things like loose connections or the panels being shaded by trees, or other simple problems - particularly batteries need a fair bit of attention.

And I agree with Captain Rightfoot - if you are talking about a grid connected system, it does away with the batteries, the biggest bugbear, and there are almost no maintenance problems, and no restrictions on power use. And even the possibility of avoiding blackouts, at least while the sun is out. As I said earlier, I see this as a more viable way of generating solar power than large solar power stations.

John

The Wind/Solar power generator set belongs to Fraser130 in here , a very impressive set up indeed , I spent a considerable amount of time talking to him about his set up.

Cool solar / wind setup Fraser130 has there , would be able to sit still for a long time before experienceing flat batteries.
The way I see it so far in my reasearch is that if you were to choose your solar system provider/installer carefully, based on price, your out of pocket expence would be in the hundreds of dollars on a 1kw grid connect system (6 panels and an inverter hooked to the grid). That is taking into account the government rebate of $8 per watt and the RECs credits generated by the install ( which are worth money too ). Surely with QLD goverments sweetner of 44c per KwH pumped back into the grid at any point in time it would not be long before your out of pocket expence would be offset by the saving.
( I am baseing this on my own households daily energy usage, no AC etc. )

John Christies generator

Originally Posted by BAILEY

John Christies generator

Am I missing something here, is there supposed to be a Link or pic or what, Regards Frank.