Comments on: Washington Utility Proves Home Solar and Wind Too Pricey?

By: Susan Kraemer

Susan Kraemer — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 02:10:07 +0000

Oh, my God, what a lot of electricity! Don’t they have any insulation??? They should add solar hot water, and heat their homes with radiant heating. Or keep the electricity but feed a Steffes thermal energy storage unit, for heating using off peak power at night. That is such a waste!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:06:00 +0000

Susan, nice article…it inspired me to write one of my own where I did some analysis. I even got the utility to respond to my requests and give me the actual numbers from their tests. The reason their solar results are so far out of line from what you are seeing in your home in CA is they are basing the average electricity consumption/year at 18,000 kWh (their customers heat with electricity), where you are using about 6,600 kWh/year.

Let me know what you think!
http://blog.mapawatt.com/2011/03/27/residential-clean-energy-solar-vs-wind/

By: Susan Kraemer

Susan Kraemer — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 02:28:35 +0000

Cute experiment!

By: Susan Kraemer

Susan Kraemer — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 02:22:58 +0000

Actually 550 kwh is the statistical average in California. It is partly the mild winters here compared to states like Minnesota with long cold winters and if they have houses with electric heating. Is that your case?

But also, states like Wyoming with no building codes cost far more to heat and cool than states like California with Title 24 energy efficiency building codes requiring efficient buliding.

Because of that code, our house was built with double pane windows, reflectant roof deck paint, passive solar design, very good insulation. Then recently we have gradually replaced all the incandescents with cfls, or LEDs, the washing machine and fridge are efficient.

By: MD

MD — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 17:56:18 +0000

I live South of Spokane, near Pullman WA, we’d do quite well with solar, though in my area we have almost constant wind near the “Breaks” which is on the rim of the Snake River LC Valley, Iberdrola renewables is in our area too, they have test wind mills up. For solar, the best thing to setup in our area is a solar powered hot water system, I did an experiment with a car radiator, I was able to get it to crack in mid july, simply filled it with water, capped it and left it in the back yard on top of the shed… sure enough, gets hot enough to pop the radiator and make steam…

By: darth

darth — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 14:55:54 +0000

How do you use on 550KwH per month? I avg 3x that and I have put in numerous efficiency upgrades (hvac, washer, fridge, lights, insulation) (i have a big house)

so what produces 80% for you would only produce %30 for me. I wonder what they use for their average use home?

By: Washington Utility Proves Home Solar and Wind Too Pricey? – CleanTechnica : GreenEnergyGroup – Tips and Resources for using wind and solar

Sun, 06 Feb 2011 01:53:47 +0000

[…] Washington Utility Proves Home Solar and Wind Too Pricey?CleanTechnicaThe solar panels produced about five times as much power per dollar as the wind turbines. ?Solar,? Richard Damiano, the utility's chief engineer told the …Solar Takes on Wind in Battle of EfficiencyCalFinder (blog)Global wind power increased installations to 194.4 gigawatts in 2010EcoSeedCORRECTING and REPLACING GE's 15000th 1.5 Megawatt Wind Turbine Supports …Business Wire (press release)all 43 news articles » […]

By: Bill Woods

Bill Woods — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 00:59:04 +0000

To start with, they’re talking about the first two weeks of January, when Spokane’s solar production is less than half its annual average — ~2 vs. ~4.5 kW-h/m2/day.
http://www.nrel.gov/gis/images/map_pv_us_january_dec2008.jpg
http://www.nrel.gov/gis/images/map_pv_us_annual10km_dec2008.jpg

By contrast, for the East Bay, the figures are ~3.5 vs ~5.5 kW-h/m2/day. [Eyeballing the maps, YMMV]

Secondly, I think they’re using the real cost, not counting the federal (and Calif?) subsidies.

By: Tweets that mention Washington Utility Proves Home Solar and Wind Too Pricey? – CleanTechnica: Cleantech innovation news and views -- Topsy.com

Sat, 05 Feb 2011 01:22:09 +0000

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By: Ken Clive

Ken Clive — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 01:00:01 +0000

Perhaps the cost of permits to put up those turbines and panels was too high? I wouldn’t be surprised if the city of Spokane opposed the construction of what they think are unsightly solar panels and wind turbines (they tend to forget that coal plants look worse lol).