Solar and Wind Power Questions Answered

How much power can a photovoltaic (PV) module (solar panel) produce? PV modules vary in size and output. One of the most common size module is about 4' 5" x 2' 2" and produces 120 Watts peak or about 7 Amps for use in a 12 volt DC system. How much energy can a photovoltaic module produce? Electrical energy is generally measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh). Thus, if a module produces 100 Watts for 1 hours, it has produced 100 Watt-hours or 0.1 kWh. The amount of energy produced on a given day will depend on location, shading, and module orientation (direction and tilt). In a good area for solar power (such as Phoenix, Arizona), a properly oriented module which produces 100 Watts at noon on a clear day will produce an average of about 0.5 kWh/day in January and 0.8 kWh/day in May and June. (Fluctuations result from the amount of variation in direct sunlight on a typical day). In a relatively "poor" area for solar power (such as Albany, NY), the same module will still produce about 0.25 kWh/day in January and 0.6 kWh/day in July. http://www.etaengineering.com/resources/faq.shtml UK How much electricity does a PV solar energy system generate in a year? In ideal conditions that is, facing south and tilted at an angle of 30 degrees in the UK, a typical 2 kWp (kilowatt power) domestic PV solar energy system will generate 1500 kWh (kilowatt hours) per year. 1 kWh is equivalent to 1 unit of electricity shown on your electricity bill. How much energy do I need? The best way to find out how much electricity your household needs is to look at your electricity bills, or to ask your electricity supplier how many units you use per year. As a guide, an average, 3-bedroom house in the UK that doesnt use electricity for cooking or heating consumes around 3,300 kWh a year. http://www.solarenergycompany.co.uk/faq.html Australia How much energy will my Solar System produce? A 1 Kilowatt system will on average produce around 4.5 Kilowatts a day. A 1.5 Kilowatt system will on average produce around 6.75 Kilowatts of energy a day. The exact amount of energy produced depends on such factors as panel angle, temperature and weather conditions. What is a feed in tariff? Feed In Tariffs offer one of the most useful ways of encouraging homeowners to instal photovoltaic solar panels on their homes. Feed In Tariffs are a mechanism by which owners of grid- connect photovoltaic solar power systems are paid MORE than the retail price for any excess electricity production that is fed back into the grid. There is the exciting new development of Electricity Feed-In Tariffs. These tariffs will be launched early in 2008 throughout Canberra, New South Wales and Victoria and you will be paid around 54 cents for every kilowatt hour of electricity you supply back to the grid. This rate is almost four times greater than what you are currently paying for electricity from the grid. How much will it cost to run? There are no running costs. Once your Solar Panel System is installed the electricity is free. http://www.solarpanelrebate.com.au/the-future.html

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Solar and Wind Power Questions Answered

How much land does Solar Power need? If we assume a 1000 MWe electrical generation plant, and we assume it runs 24/7 for the entire year (no down time), then that plant will generate about 8.8 billion kilowatthours per year. So we need to calculate the size of a PV array that will generate the same kW-hrs. Assuming the average US solar resource of 1800 kW-hr/m2-year [how much the sun shines] and a PV system efficiency of 10%, one square meter of PV would generate about 180 kW-hr/year. Therefore you would need about 48.7 million sq meters or 48.7 square kilometers. Thats 18.8 square miles. For the sunny southwest, we have a yearly average solar resource of 2300 kWh/m2. Again assuming a 10% PV system efficiency, then that would produce about 230 kWh/m2-year. So for this array, you would need 38 million sq meters or 38 sq km. That is 14.7 square miles. According to John Turner, a solar power specialist at the US governments National Renewable Energy Laboratory http://www.newscientist.com/blog/environment/2007/07/just-how-much-land-does-solar-power.html A system calculator AC Energy & Cost Savings

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Station Identification City: State: Latitude: Longitude: Elevation: PV System Specifications DC Rating: DC to AC Derate Factor: AC Rating: Array Type: Array Tilt: Array Azimuth: Energy Specifications Cost of Electricity: 7.9 /kWh 1000.0 kW (1MW) 0.770 770.0 kW Fixed Tilt 44.9 180.0 Minneapolis Minnesota 44.88 N 93.22 W 255 m Month 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Solar Radiation (kWh/m2/day) 3.85 4.72 4.97 4.91 5.74 5.91 5.89 5.64 5.21 4.28 2.95 2.85

Results AC Energy (kWh) 100350 107353 121153 108929 126538 122890 126349 121369 111848 98790 67781 72230 Energy Value ($) 7927.65 8480.89 9571.09 8605.39 9996.50 9708.31 9981.57 9588.15 8835.99 7804.41 5354.70 5706.17

Year

4.74

1,285,581

$101,561

http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/calculators/PVWATTS/version1/US/Minnesota/Minneapolis.html

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Solar and Wind Power Questions Answered

Map of Solar Influx

http://www.en-genius.net/includes/images/grne_073007.jpg http://www.en-genius.net/site/zones/greentechZONE/editorial_opinion/grne_073007

Compare to Wind Power

How much electricity can one wind turbine generate? The ability to generate electricity is measured in watts. Watts are very small units, so the terms kilowatt (kW, 1,000 watts), megawatt (MW, 1 million watts), and gigawatt (pronounced "jig-a-watt," GW, 1 billion watts) are most commonly used to describe the capacity of generating units like wind turbines or other power plants. Electricity production and consumption are most commonly measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh). A kilowatt-hour means one kilowatt (1,000 watts) of electricity produced or consumed for one hour. One 50-watt light bulb left on for 20 hours consumes one kilowatt-hour of electricity (50 watts x 20 hours = 1,000 watt-hours = 1 kilowatt-hour). The output of a wind turbine depends on the turbine's size and the wind's speed through the rotor. Wind turbines being manufactured now have power ratings ranging from 250 watts to 5 megawatts (MW). Example: A 10-kW wind turbine can generate about 10,000 kWh annually at a site with wind speeds averaging 12 miles per hour, or about enough to power a typical household. The average U.S. household consumes about 10,000 kWh of electricity each year. A 5-MW (5000 kW or 500x larger than 10 kW) turbine can produce more than 15 million kWh in a year--enough to power more than 1, 400 households. Utility-scale wind power plants require minimum average wind speeds of 6 m/s (13 mph).

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Solar and Wind Power Questions Answered

The power available in the wind is proportional to the cube of its speed, which means that doubling the wind speed increases the available power by a factor of eight. Thus, a turbine operating at a site with an average wind speed of 12 mph could in theory generate about 33% more electricity than one at an 11-mph site, because the cube of 12 (1,768) is 33% larger than the cube of 11 (1,331). (In the real world, the turbine will not produce quite that much more electricity, but it will still generate much more than the 9% difference in wind speed.) The important thing to understand is that what seems like a small difference in wind speed can mean a large difference in available energy and in electricity produced, and therefore, a large difference in the cost of the electricity generated. Also, there is little energy to be harvested at very low wind speeds (6-mph winds contain less than one-eighth the energy of 12-mph winds). Example: A 250-kW turbine installed at the elementary school in Spirit Lake, Iowa, provides an average of 350,000 kWh of electricity per year. http://www.awea.org/faq/wwt_basics.html

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