“My goal is to educate the farming community about the benefits of solar generated electricity.  Those benefits are both tangible, in the form of new revenue streams of income, as well as the intangibles of renewable energy, reducing our carbon foot print, helping mother earth, etc.” remarked Owen in an off the cuff interview.

The Solar 101 presentation will be delivered to get everyone up to speed on the current commercially available solar technology and teminologies. Then an introduction to Nth Degree Solar is provided followed by sample scenarios of electrical usage and possible grid-tied solar electric solutions.

To attend this presentation, contact Linda at the Colorado Potato and reserve a spot today: 719-852-3322

When: Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 9 AM

Take a gander at the latest picture:

30 KW Installed Solar Electric System

Of course, the XCEL Website will probably tell you the page does not exist, becuaae before you can do anything on their site, you have to have picked a state, so go here: http://www.xcelenergy.com/ and pick Colorado as your state, then go back and try the link above and it should work.

If you want to take advantage of the higher rates XCEL is paying now, vs. the lower rates later, contact us as Nth Degree Energy to see how solar can benefit you today!

• For Colorado Residents and Businesses: click here if you are a homeowner, landlord or business owner interested in receiving a rebate.
• For Contractors: click here if you provide customers with energy efficiency or renewable energy services and want to know how this program affects you.
• For Program Partners: click here if you are a local government or utility interested in partnering with the GEO to offer rebates in your territory.

The rebates will be offered statewide on a first-come, first-serve basis through 2012 or until funds are exhausted, whichever occurs first. All energy efficiency and renewable energy rebates are designed to complement existing local incentives and create partnership opportunities when possible. The GEO has developed this program based on stringent criteria from the U.S. Department of Energy and the needs of Coloradans. For general appliance and technology categories offered in March of 2010, please follow the link to “Colorado consumer residents” above. Funding for these rebates is provided by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009.

All customers get $2.00 per DC watt to offset cost of equipment.  Commercial solar installations over 10 KW in size generate production electricity and get paid 11.5 cents per KW hour thye generate.

The rebate rate of $1.50 for residential customers is being lowered in step fashion as more solar PV arrays are installed.  Check here for the current rate.

Nth Degree Energy uses the Acme camera kit and PV Watts to do a custom designed solution that fits the customers needs.  Here is what an array shot looks like to determine the amount of sun hours a day:

Solar Analysis Chart

The solar array was installed on an empty field across a ditch from the house:

Grid-tied Solar PV electric system installation site

Here is a picture of the completed solar installation:

Installed Solar Electric Power Plant - 15KW

The system required two Sunny Boy 7000 inverters:

Grid-tied solar array inveter cross-connect

You can view the power plant here.

Description of location:
1: Latitude: 37.653 N Longitude: 106.660 W Elevation: 7750’
2: Declination: 9.8 deg E
3: Lowest Temperature -34deg F: Highest ambient Temperature 78 deg F
4: Total Electricity used/Year: 44,863 KHW Total Cost/Year $ 4,640.17
5: Panel Pitch: 35 Deg
6: Hours of Solar Radiation: 6.33 Hours /day fixed for summer

Picture of sunlight hours for House site: The site has 98% of sunlight hours. Sunlight 6.33Hrs / Available 6.20 Hrs

Calculate amount of solar needed to meet Electrical needs:

1: Average solar per Month: 44,863 KHW/12 =3,738.6 KWH/Mth
2. Average solar per day 3,738.6Kwh/30 = 124.612 KWH
3: Amount solar per hour: 124.612 / KWH/6.20hrs*1000watts/1KWH= 20,099 Watts/Hr
4. Inverter efficiency: (20,099 watts/hr)/.96 = 20,936 Watts/Hr
5: # of Sharp 235W panels: 20,936W/235W= 89.089 or 90 panels
6. # Inverters: 3 Sunny Boy 7000US (240V) Inverters
7.  System Size 21.15 KW
8. Actual Size:  15.51 kW

When you use electricity, it spins your power meter forward.  You pay on this meter based on how many kilowatt hours you use during a measured period (usually a month).

If you install a grid-tied solar photovoltaic PV system, it will generate electricity.  When this electricity flow through the system, it runs the meter backwards, or unwinds the usage that spins it forward.

During sunny days when nobody is home and electrical use is minimal, the meter flys backwards.  Then you come home, after dark and start using the electricity and the meter goes forward again.

The key concept to grasp here is that you are essentially using the power companies grid (the lines that brings electricity to your home) as your storage mechanism, instead of having to have batteris to store the power you generate during the day to use at night.

From the utility company perspective:

Net metering is an agreement between the utility company and the system owner allowing for ‘banking’ excess power produced by a solar system in the electric grid and ‘drawing’ from the electric grid when more power is needed.

Wikipedia defines net metering as follows:

Net metering is an electricity policy for consumers who own (generally small) renewable energy facilities, such as wind, solar power or home fuel cells. “Net”, in this context, is used in the sense of meaning “what remains after deductions” — in this case, the deduction of any energy outflows from metered energy inflows. Under net metering, a system owner receives retail credit for at least a portion of the electricity they generate. Most electricity meters accurately record in both directions, allowing a no-cost method of effectively banking excess electricity production for future credit. However, the rules vary significantly by country and possibly state/province; if net metering is available, if and how long you can keep your banked credits, and how much the credits are worth (retail/wholesale). Most net metering laws involve monthly roll over of kWh credits, a small monthly connection fee, require monthly payment of deficits (i.e. normal electric bill), and annual settlement of any residual credit. Unlike a Feed-in Tariff or time of use metering (TOU), net metering can be implemented solely as an accounting procedure, and requires no special metering, or even any prior arrangement or notification.

Net Metering is generally a consumer-based renewable energy incentive. While it is important to have Net Metering available for any consumer that interconnects their renewable generator to the grid, this form of renewable incentive places the burdens of pioneering renewable energy primarily upon fragmented consumers. Often over-burdened energy agencies are not providing incentives on a consistent basis and it is difficult for individuals to negotiate with large institutions to recover their Net Metering credits and/or rebates for using renewable energy.

Net metering is all a residential customer generally gets from teh power company.  Businesses, on the other hand, get to apply their solar generation to their usage ala Net Metering, but also reap the benefit of getting paid a productio nrate on every kilowatt hour generated, but only on solar system sizes larger than 10 kilowatts.

Read more about solar business investments here.

The myths they debunk:

#1 – Myth: Solar systems only work in really hot areas of the world

#2 – Myth: More pollution is generated manufacturing solar panels than can ever be offset by solar energy

#3 – Myth: Solar power is way too ridiculously expensive

#4 – Myth: Solar power cannot contribute enough energy to meet the nation’s needs

#5 – Myth: If covered with solar panels, the Sahara Desert could power all of Europe

#6 – Myth: Solar power systems are simply unreliable

#7 – Myth: You can create your own solar panel through DIY websites

Read Entire Solar Power Myths Debunked article here.