Internal fuel cell, micro wind power, photovoltaic, or thermal solar power for homes? What’s best?
Posted on 2008 under solar power for homes | 5 Comments22 Nov
I’m doing some research regarding the installation of a fuel cell inside a house and I want to compare the price of this system with a PV and thermal solar power for homes system and also the price of a micro wind power to use in residential buildings. Prices would be suitable in installed KW or KWh of energy. Any thoughts?
What should be a relatively straightforward answer, like it will cost you $14/watt for solar power for homes and $7/watt for wind power is not so easy in reality. There are “two” big challenges to understanding your PV and wind power system costs and power?
#1. POWER IS HARD TO FIGURE OUT. You buy these systems based on their “nameplate” value, but you actually care about their total power generation: To explain: Each of these systems, solar power fro homes or wind, will be “rated” by their power production peak capability. This “rating” is known as their nameplate value, and when purchasing a “90 watt” solar panel, and the 90 watts is the peak power this panel can produce on a sunny day at noon. Similarly, a 1kW (nameplate) wind turbine will be “rated” for the peak power it can generate in fairly high wind (typically 30 mph sustained). If you are actually using these systems for power generation, the nameplate value is good to know for the total power you will need to handle in the system, but not wholly useful for determining it’s power production. What you actually care about is watts/per year, not watts per BEST CASE SCENARIO. To determine your yearly estimated watts per solar or wind is quite hard and depends on your sun and wind conditions where you live and how you install these. In general, a solar system with nameplate power of 3 kW will produce approximately 4000 kW/hrs per year in “good” sun (southern U.S.), and a 3kW wind turbine will produce approximately 6000 kW/hrs in “good” wind (Wind class 3 areas.) A wind class map can be found at AWEA.org.
#2. PRICE IS HARD TO FIGURE OUT. Even if you do some math, and figure out your power production for your system, there is not an easy “price” total for either of these. Solar panels need installation, DC-AC inverters, grid-connection systems and/or battery systems. Wind systems also need installation, including potentially costly foundation and tower work if you want to get the turbine up into stronger winds, inverters, grid-connection and batteries etc. It is not atypical in EITHER solar or wind for the installed costs to double or triple the purchase of the panels or turbines themselves. What you wanted to know was which to buy, the answer is: if it’s really sunny and not windy, use solar power for homes, if it’s windy (branches often flutter on your trees), think about wind. later, Jeremy
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by Frank M, on November 23 2008 @ 1:25 am
Solar Modules are approaching $4/Watt (down from $8/Watt a few years ago). Typical installation for a dwelling in USA is $25K.
References :
by GEO, on November 23 2008 @ 2:14 am
As costs of solar products decrease, solar energy is replacing electricity/fossil in many application like lighting, cooking and heating. More information at http://altenergy.in/
References :
http://altenergy.in/
by jeremy_stieglitz, on November 23 2008 @ 2:49 am
What should be a relatively straightforward answer, like it will cost you $14/watt for solar and $7/watt for wind power is not so easy in reality. There are "two" big challenges to understanding your PV and wind power system costs and power?
#1. POWER IS HARD TO FIGURE OUT. You buy these systems based on their "nameplate" value, but you actually care about their total power generation:
To explain: Each of these systems, Solar or Wind, will be "rated" by their power production peak capability. This "rating" is known as their nameplate value, and when purchasing a "90 watt" solar panel, and the 90 watts is the peak power this panel can produce on a sunny day at noon. Similarly, a 1kW (nameplate) wind turbine will be "rated" for the peak power it can generate in fairly high wind (typically 30 mph sustained).
If you are actually using these systems for power generation, the nameplate value is good to know for the total power you will need to handle in the system, but not wholly useful for determining it's power production. What you actually care about is watts/per year, not watts per BEST CASE SCENARIO.
To determine your yearly estimated watts per solar or wind is quite hard and depends on your sun and wind conditions where you live and how you install these. In general, a solar system with nameplate power of 3 kW will produce approximately 4000 kW/hrs per year in "good" sun (southern U.S.), and a 3kW wind turbine will produce approximately 6000 kW/hrs in "good" wind (Wind class 3 areas.) A wind class map can be found at AWEA.org.
#2. PRICE IS HARD TO FIGURE OUT. Even if you do some math, and figure out your power production for your system, there is not an easy "price" total for either of these. Solar panels need installation, DC-AC inverters, grid-connection systems and/or battery systems. Wind systems also need installation, including potentially costly foundation and tower work if you want to get the turbine up into stronger winds, inverters, grid-connection and batteries etc. It is not atypical in EITHER solar or wind for the installed costs to double or triple the purchase of the panels or turbines themselves.
What you wanted to know was which to buy, the answer is: if it's really sunny and not windy, use solar, if it's windy (branches offer flutter on your trees), think about wind.
later,
jeremy
References :
awea.org
by Gaz, on November 23 2008 @ 3:37 am
Jeremy is absolutely correct. I have done a power audit for a job involving a single 1.5KV system. I priced the Solar system at around $25k AUD, wind system at $25k AUD ,hybrid system at $35k AUD and the installation costs took the prices up to $50k +, not only that but as Jeremy rightly says the power audit revealed that 1.5kW was inadequate for the site and overbudgetting of the system power is generally required which takes the price even higher in most cases. In most cases the price generally approaches the $30 per watt level after all the costs are factored in and that is generally what puts people off this technology.
References :
by Tim, on November 23 2008 @ 7:32 am
If people want to reduce their power bills, or become more green they should consider the cheaper options such as:
1) Getting into the habit of saving electricity, such as switching off unused appliances and lights.
2) Making use of passive solar design – this can be as simple as planting deciduous trees on the sun-facing side of your house, which provides cool shade in summer and allows warm sunlight through in winter. Or get modern double-glazed Low emissivity (Low E) windows that retain heat in your house better.
3) Use outdoor solar cookers in summer to make your food in. Although it takes 4 times longer to cook your food, solar ovens are easy to make and you can cook anything from baked bread to steamed veges to a whole roast chicken in them.
Just remember – prevention is better than cure…lower your reliance on electricity, and you won’t need to continuously figure out new ways to generate it.