What You Have To Understand About Roof Attached Solar Energy Panels

Anytime the sun is out, your own home's roof is subjected to power from the sun. Why don't you harness that energy, decrease your electricity bill as well as decrease the amount of carbon dioxide you add to the ecosystem day after day? Depending on were you reside, your roof top's direction, plus the load your home's roof will be able to bear, installing photovoltaic cells (PVs) on the roof might be a valuable investment in boosting your home's energy independence.

* What are PVs and in what ways do they function?

Specific components like copper indium diselenide, crystalline and amorphous silicon and gallium arsenide supply electrical power when they absorb light. This is called the photoelectric effect. Solar cells are normally created from a thin coating of this photosensitive material. Sunshine hitting the solar cell raises the level of energy of the electrons within. In an elevated energy state, these electrons can escape from their molecules and produce an electric current. And, the best thing is that this solar alternative energy is free.

* How can you tell if your roof structure is a solid choice for solar cell placement?

Solar cells work most effectively while subjected to direct sunshine. If at all possible, you would set a panel of cells on a power-driven bracket which follows the sun's path across the sky, but that's usually not practical for your roof. The next best thing can be a rooftop mounting in which the roof's slope carries with it an unobstructed southern exposure. Depending on your latitude and the incline of your roof, the PV system installation technician might propose optimizing the angle of your PV modules with an raised mounting rack so that they can collect significantly more light.

In addition, you should be conscious of how much weight your home's roof can bear. Should your roof has two layers of shingles, you most likely shouldn't add in solar panels to that load.

A substitute for solar panels is often a somewhat new solution, "solar shingles". They are shingles into which PV cells are already incorporated. In case your roof ought to be replaced in any event, solar shingles provide the opportunity to achieve two objectives at once.

Finally, PV cells lose performance when the temperature increases. In warmer parts of the country, you could be more satisfied exploring alternate options like wind generators. In regions like Florida or California, public utilities are taking solar thermal electric power plants online. Such systems, although primarily viable only for power plants much larger than the individual home, realistically end up being more advantageous as well as cheaper than PV products when it is hot.

* What components make up a roof mounted Photovoltaic system?

Photovoltaic cells yield direct current, and can be connected in series to increase the output voltage. Though you can get particular appliances for sale that operated with Direct current, most PV platforms distribute electrical power via an inverter. This device transforms the solar cells' direct current to standardized residential AC. The output of the inverter is then integrated into the home's electric system. Scaled-down solutions primarily add to electrical power from the utility, reducing your total monthly bill.

Should you put in a larger system and make your home very energy efficient, and you may often have a excess of electrical power. You can either store it for later on using batteries, or feed it straight back to the electric grid. If you give your excess straight into the electric grid, the electric company may just pay you. This is known as "net metering", and it is the law in at least 35 states. It's intended as an incentive to use alternative energy like solar. It's a good deal for you, and it is a great deal for the utility company because your PV system is most likely to produce excess electrical power precisely when maximum demand occurs. Your surplus generating Photovoltaic system had the ability to help avert electrical power black outs.

* How much will a Photovoltaic installation cost?

While all this
alternative energy, solar power is free, the equipment to handle it or not. The initial expense of the roof attached solar panels can range from 6,000 for a small supplementary installation to 30,000 if not more for a larger "off-the-grid" installation. The capital expense of such a home Photovoltaic system is rather fuzzy, though. It could be preferable to evaluate what you're currently paying out per kilowatt-hour to the amortized per kilowatt-hour cost for the Photovoltaic system. As reported by the U.S. DoE, that price is about 0.25 per kilowatt-hour. In most regions, this is in excess of what the utility companies charge.

That is the not so good news.

The good news is that there exists quite a few state sponsored inducement programs regarding solar technology. Make the most of them, so you could reduce your costs substantially. To get information regarding most of these programs, you should check with the National Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE), put together by the North Carolina Solar Center. The database addresses inducement packages designed to enhance the development of renewable energy.

On top of that, the price of the electrical power your Photovoltaic system creates is insulated from deregulation, rate increases, as well as inflation. This means that amortized twenty-five cents per kilowatt-hour cost will still be 25 cents thirty years from the date of installation. You will never know just what the local electric rate will be?

And there's additional good news. By going solar power, you are reducing the quantity of coal and natural gas burned up at electrical power plants, you will be reducing the volume of CO2 gas we send directly into the environment, and you will be asserting your energy freedom.

Adding solar cells on the roof is undoubtedly an idea whose time has come. Home generated solar electrical power is workable, makes sense, and is within the reach of most homeowners.

Credit: renewable-energy-world.blogspot.com

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Uk Solar Industry Predicts 1Gw Of Installations In The Next Year

We're going to see a lot more of these in the UK.

The UK solar industry now sees a bright future for itself following last Friday's decision by the Supreme Court to refuse the Government permission to appeal on the ruling that solar PV installations registered after December 12 last year and before March 3 this year could qualify for the 43.3p kWh subsidy rather than the 21p rate the Government tried to enforce.

Many companies have plans for large-scale solar in particular because they see new possibilities from the Renewables Obligation Certification scheme (ROCs), which gives two ROCs for each MWh for schemes over 5MW, and under which there is no size limit.

There is even talk of solar farms as large as those found in Europe, up to even 40MW in size, in the south of England. One player predicts 1GW of plant installed in the UK over the next year.

Emma Hughes of Solar power Portal says that "now that the feed-in tariff fiasco has reached a conclusion many are looking forward to working in the UK solar industry in 2012, especially now there is opportunity under the Renewables Obligation."

REC Solar, Canadian Solar, Q-Cells and many others are all of the opinion that if the component prices decline as expected, and energy bills continue to rise, opportunities for ground-mounted solar to become cost-effective will increase.

REC Solar is hoping to double its capacity this year by installing approximately 60MW, a large proportion of which will be ground mounted.

SUPERHOMES

At the domestic and business consumer level, more than anything else the government has done, the installation of panels on so many roofs across the country has got people talking about energy and its importance.

All over the country this weekend, owners of homes who had installed green equipment or upgrades threw open their doors for visitors interested in doing eco-refits themselves.

Besides solar PV systems, visitors to the 'green showhomes' on these tours saw every type of upgrade from simple insulation and draught proofing measures to complete overhauls and rebuilds, involving many types of green heating from woodchip fired boilers to solar water heating systems, and even in one case, a tank which combined four different kinds of heating.

Many of those on the tours had had their interest in the subject first aroused by seeing solar panels on neighbours roofs.

This indicates that a chief aim of government policy has succeeded: increasing public awareness in energy matters, even though investment in photovoltaic technology in this country is not cost-effective at the level of subsidy initially set by the feed in tariffs.

But although many of the thousands of people on these tours knew about the Feed-in Tariffs, a high level of ignorance was revealed about the follow-up schemes, the Renewable Heat Incentive and the Green Deal, indicating the huge amount of work that the Government yet has to do to publicise these initiatives.

The 'Superhomes' tours were organised by volunteers in many towns and cities in England and Wales, either by the network members themselves, or local Transition Towns groups.

Several were oversubscribed, indicating the increased popularity of the subject, further evidence of which was the changed nature of last week's Ecobuild exhibition in London, which was far more upbeat, corporate and mainstream than it had been in previous years, with much floor space taken up by solar and heat pump installers.

Speaking at the Ecobuild exhibition, Energy and Climate Change Minister, Greg Barker said: "This is an aspirational agenda. We know people are always looking to improve their home even in times of austerity. It's part of the British DNA."

John Gaffney, who organised a tour in and around Llandeilo in Carmarthenshire, said "many of the homes we have seen this weekend who have solar photovoltaic panels installed still think it is worth the investment even with the reduced tariff."

"It seems so complicated from the outside, knowing what to do," said one of the super homes tourists, Peter Jones of Llangadog, "But seeing what other people have already done is a terrific help in getting ideas about what is possible in your own circumstances."

A highlight of this tour was a home which had both water and space heating supplied by both a ground source heat pump and solar water heating panels, with the electricity for the pumps supplied by photovoltaic solar panels supported by FITs. "We generate more energy than we need, so we are still actually paid by the energy supplier after we have used all the energy ourselves," said owner Caroline Langdon.

GREEN DEAL RED TAPE REMOVED

Last week, Greg Barker sought to remove doubts that the Green Deal implementation would be delayed, but did say there will be a "managed" roll-out of the scheme, meaning that some aspects will launch before others, chief of which may be the Energy Company Obligation, which is simpler to arrange.

He said that the Government would be responding to the Green Deal consultation in April and secondary legislation would appear "by summer recess".

"This doesn't affect the planned October launch," he said.

He told attendees to the exhibition that red tape was being removed from those who wanted to become accredited installers, including the requirements to have a surety bond in place prior to being authorised; to hold warranties for the 25 year length of the plan when they were longer than standard industry warranties, e.g. for boilers,; and the requirement that installers pay for an Independent Conciliation Service.

Instead, a new Green Deal Ombudsman capable of handling complaints will be appointed.

"REMOVE STAMP DUTY"

UK Green Building Council chief Paul King has called the Government's handling of the solar FITs "catastrophic" and said it is now crucial that the Government instills confidence in businesses preparing for the Green Deal.

This weekend, many visitors on the superhomes tours expressed fears that if they invested in renewable heat systems that the tariff rate for these would be reduced in the future. Many appeared unaware that tariff rate reductions did not affect those whose installations had met the deadlines.

In this respect the public perception arising from the solar FITs fiasco has been extremely damaging.

To rebuild confidence, and create more publicity, Paul King has called on the Government to link the Green Deal with stamp duty and council tax, making less energy efficient homes pay more through the tax system.

He said it didn't matter if the implementation of the Green Deal was delayed if it meant that its integrity would be preserved and the fine detail was in place and did not have to be amended subsequently.

He said: "I would much rather delay it rather than go and blunder it as it will take 10 years to get it out of the public consciousness.

COLLECTIVE ENERGY PURCHASING

In a further bid to engage consumers with energy purchasing, today, Ed Davey has written to all of the energy suppliers asking them to support collective purchasing schemes as another way of helping householders engage easily with the electricity market and bring prices down.

He wrote: "I want to make it easier for consumers to club together and use their collective purchasing power to engage with the market and to get good deals on their gas and electricity."

This was a key part of the Consumer Empowerment Strategy that Ed Davey launched as a Minister in the Department for Business Innovation and Skills last year.

He said particular you want to see schemes that reached out to "include more vulnerable customers and people who don't shop around for their gas and electricity".

The purpose of the letter is to encourage all energy suppliers to engage with these organisations on their ideas.

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Denmarks Solar Cell Production Can Now Be Followed Live Online

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Solar installed on an eco house in Denmark.

By Anders Lorenzen"

In the last few years, solar PV in Denmark has accelerated due to subsidy schemes making homeowners invest in the technology. While around 500 megawatts that have so far been installed is still far from reaching the capacity of wind power which Denmark are far more known for, the trend of homeowners to instal solar is set to continue.

The Danish grid Energinet minute for minute live tracks the electricity output from the country's wind turbines, power plants and CHP plants as well as calculating the total electricity consumption and whether Denmark is exporting or importing electricity and calculating the total CO2 emissions from the electricity being used.

But due to demand requests to see what the Danish solar cells are producing, they have now been added to the live electricity monitoring. This means as well as keeping an eye on the electricity levels from Denmarks wind turbines, you can now do the same thing for solar cells.

Energinet says that it can, for the first time, publish exact online measurements of the generation from Denmark's approx. 90,000 privately-held solar cell plants.

Henning Parbo from Energinet's department for Market development explains:

"A great deal of companies in the electricity business have requested solar cell figures.They have requested improved information on how much electricity the solar cells generate. In their experience, it has become more difficult to predict the electricity consumption, and they are certain that the solar cells have played them a trick'

Energinet gives some evidence to how rapid solar installations have been growing, saying that up until 2012 there were 4,100 solar systems, but today there is approximately 90,000.

On average Solar produces 2% of the Danes, electricity - though during some really hot days in July that number was 13%.

"Sub edited by Charlotte Paton"

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Denmark: largest offshore wind farm opened

Worlds longest wind turbine blades produced and transported in Denmark

Source: our-green-energy.blogspot.com

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