Comments on: Largest Rooftop Solar Power Plant in North America Formally Completed

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:50:00 +0000

however, seems it’s also hard to measure nationally.

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:49:00 +0000

i know, ridiculous.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:23:00 +0000

We’re needing an update in the way we measure US electricity generation. Rooftop solar isn’t measured and it’s soon going to be a 1%+ player.

We measure wood, other biomass and geothermal which are all less than 1%.

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 00:11:00 +0000

Certainly.

By: Billteud

Billteud — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 18:51:00 +0000

It’s fine for comparing one rooftop solar plant to another, as you’re doing here, but not if you’re trying to compare, for instance, rooftop solar with concentrated solar thermal plants. I can’t find the actual annual generation for this rooftop anywhere.

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 18:40:00 +0000

We’re talking about the size of the project. This is all the info needed.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:21:00 +0000

I suppose so. But solar hours is an easier to grab statistic.

By: Billteud

Billteud — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:15:00 +0000

If we knew the Terminal’s power demand we could calculate it from the 80% figure?

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:10:00 +0000

You could get a pretty good idea by looking up the solar hours for the location and calculating the expected capacity.

Off the top of my head I’d expect 4.5 average hours over the year. 18.8%. 1.69 MW averaged over 24/365.

By: Billteud

Billteud — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:04:00 +0000

Yeah 9 MW “peak capacity”, but how much energy has it actually produced? Why is it always so hard to find the real numbers?

By: New York City vs Heiden - A Solar City Comparison - CleanTechnica

New York City vs Heiden - A Solar City Comparison - CleanTechnica — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 17:14:34 +0000

[…] a leader in solar energy generation. Looking across the Hudson River to what’s happening in the state of New Jersey would be enough to make this reality clear and obvious, but that comparison would still fall short in terms of showing what’s possible […]

By: “Largest Solar Power Plant in World” Now Under Construction, & Largest Solar PV Plant in North America Now in Operation - CleanTechnica

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 13:43:32 +0000

[…] It I know, you’re probably getting tired of all this “largest solar this, largest solar that, largest solar boat” news, but I guess we can just expect “bigger and bigger” […]

By: Cal Morton

Cal Morton — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:41:00 +0000

Getting Tier 1 Chinese panels at $1 a watt or slightly less is common place for projects even under 10kW

By: solarMD

solarMD — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 15:27:00 +0000

Hi Zachary,
Thanks for your postings of PV installations. I’m as you about solar power, only I focus on the practice side. My startup Wattminder has just
revamped our website and our unique Analytics on solar site performance at pvwizard(dot)com, as free service to any one with interest on actual performance of solar arrays anywhere in the world. Hope you’ll check it out and tell your readers about it. Thanks -Steve

By: RobS

RobS — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 12:56:00 +0000

I’m pretty solar enthusiastic but that survey pretty clearly shows the majority of prices clustered between 1.20 and 1.50, hence with discounts current bulk module purchases are about $1, the sub $1 are clearly outliers. Recent price trends are about 30-40% annually so 0.50 per watt should be reached by the end of 2013.

By: Captivation

Captivation — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 12:28:00 +0000

Quick search, and this was the first item to come up. The company at the top will sell 2 panels at $0.83 per watt. I suspect there might be a discount for larger orders. So perhaps $0.65 per watt is reasonable.

Personally, I think we will cross over the $0.50 per watt barrier sooner than people imagine. A lot of things are about to change very quickly

http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm

By: RobS

RobS — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 11:20:00 +0000

No one is selling at $0.65 per watt, bulk buys are running around $1 per watt. Panel costs are around one third of total project balance of system costs, so total system costs pre incentives should be about $3 per watt. This was a 9 Mw project and the press release states total costs pre rebate was $42 million, or $4.60 per watt, this reinforces the ongoing trend for utility scale systems to be ~20% more expensive then residential solar. Hopefully this just reflects that they locked in a contract for the panels 1-2 years ago before the large falls in costs over that timeframe.

By: Maclegends

Maclegends — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 08:35:00 +0000

Xpensive panels at $1525.83 each!! either someone tells pork pies or someone is a fool with money!

First quality Chinese panels sell for $1.50 per watt — big order like that might cost$0.65 per watt!

By: Michael P Totten

Michael P Totten — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 01:46:00 +0000

The very first efficiency improvement they should have done is ultra-efficient electric drive motor system components – including pumps, compressors, fans — and all the chiller and refrigeration devices. The facility has 450,000 cubic meters of refrigerated warehouses.

By: lukealization

lukealization — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 21:45:00 +0000

Rooftop solar PV is an absolutely fantastic idea and it works wonders – because in nearly all situations you can gather more Watts/meter on the roof than you consume Watts/meter in the house.

Grid PV? Still good and necessary, I just wish it could fit into smaller spaces and consume less land.