500-acre Hybrid Solar Energy Plant comes online in Florida

I heard that too, icarus. Interesting piece. Don't know of anything like that in CO yet, but I wonder if that might catch on here. We don't have a lot of "waste" land on the front range though.

 

Much more common in the EU than the US due to bureaucracy.

Hopefully things will change for the better, since co-ops are a great idea.

 

One doesn't need "waste land". Just look around! The reference piece suggested that the plant was about the size of 3 foot ball fields. How many shopping malls are there along the Rocky Mountain Front? How many factories and industrial buildings?

Roof top installations come at a bit higher cost than ground mount systems, but the trade off using "waste" roof tops is a pretty good one.

Like I said on another thread,, a 5 kw installation that would provide for the average daily power needs for the family would cover ~ 500 square feet. It is a pretty simple equation.

Icarus

Icarus

 

And even this installation has only about !/2 covered the roof by the looks of it! Good start however!.

Icarus

 

I hope we can get to the point where PV installs become standard on new housing builds. I'm sure someone paying 400k+ for a new home, wouldn't notice much difference with another 15k on top of that. Heck, a builder could probably add the PV into the build and not raise the price, if it weren't for wanting more and more profit on them.

I used to work at a movie theater. It only had 10 screens, but the amount of power going through that place is ENORMOUS. I've heard close to $1000/day. The company refuses to do anything that might make it more efficient or use less energy from the grid (50% is coal generation here). Even knowing they could just buy the energy from a PV array, they don't want to look into it. The best part, is it's a flat roof and the entire shopping center could get in together with it if they wanted to.

My company I work for now, sent out a big email about how we are going to "turn off" for that green hour thing. Yet, everyday, they keep the parking garage lights on 24/7 despite it being a clear sunny day outside (this is the exposed top level). SMH....so many ways they could cut back on energy usage, but they make a big deal over 1 hour. Such a shame...

 

Here is a wind movie with solar planned.
Home Page

Wouldn't call 10 screens small though, and the movie theatre business isn not exactly low risk for long term investments. Solar does make more sense for other businesses though, like the mall operator. This is especially true in places like CA with high peak rates, high levels of sun, and good subsidies. The Ill solar in the movie theater comes from a company that normally sells for $6000/kw before subisidies, the florida hybrid mentioned here is a little more, but includes the cost of land.

 

Last time I checked 21% of 24 hours was ~5 hours, not 2. But ~20% peak is actually very good for a solar plant.

Where is a substantial portion of the roof in the lower right of the picture that could be utilized, economics (expensive panels and mounting hardware) dictates that the panels be mounted at an angle (and thus spacing them apart to avoid shadowing) to maximumize per-panel output. Not to mention that mounting them at an angle minimizes the need for cleaning. But hey - you're a PV expert, you knew all that already.

What they really should have done is to put put a white "cool roof" on there - would reduce roof top temperatures a good deal which would increase solar output for "free" and reduce air conditioning loads, too.

 

Often, managers of larger farms like this one seek to balance initial costs versus "return". By going to smaller systems, they save a boat load of money, yet still reduce the bad effects of "Tiered" electricity payments, where the utility bill goes up a ton, when you get to tier 2, 3, 4, or higher. All a system needs to do is reduce utility usage so that amounts are at the lowest tier. Mission Viejo's electricity utility is the same as our city ... being neighboring cities ... which also uses Southern California Edison. They sock it to you, on the upper tiers.

Our 5,000 home, home-owner's association is struggling with this "largeness" issue right now. They get these HUGE bids from PV contractors that (imo) try to sell them a bill of goods ... looking even to construct covered parking, so the PV panels can be perfectly aligned ... rather than use the existing 10,000 square feet of south-west facing roof (see attached) lines.

Thus, the nice person'n is now balking about even going forward with the PV plans, due to the high bids (amazing how QUICK PV contractor/homeowner association members wanted to throw out bids). It sickens me so much, that I'm no longer part of the advisary committee.

 

10 screens is small for here. They don't really build them under 13 or 14 anymore and now they're all incorporating 3D and Digital, which apparently requires them to leave them on 24/7 due to being network connected.

From what I've heard, most theater companies only own maybe 50% of the buildings they currently occupy. So to that end, they can't easily add solar to their roof tops. Given that most theaters run mostly during peak hours, it's really not a bad idea to have them with solar, either.

 

Meanwhile in the UK

http://www.greenbuildingpress.co.uk/article.php?category_id=1&article_id=806