BIT - Bookkeeper Information Technology

  The 2kW rooftop photo-voltaic power system was hooked up to the grid and commissioned in late March. Since then I have received three cheques from Toronto Hydro.

The cheque for April netted approximately $200, May $185 and June $175. Although this seems like an unlikely trend as summer progresses, there are many factors that could affect the sun’s exposure to the panels. June could have been more cloudy and rainy. Humidity and air pollution are also factors and this summer has been a muggy one.

I was hoping to achieve an average of $200/month through the year and this puts me a bit behind my target. Winter days are shorter and although the air is typically drier and cleaner, I anticipate winter revenue will be less. More to come.

  The 2kW solar panel array on my rooftop is now fully operational and sending power into the province’s power grid. How cool is that?

Ten 5′ x 3′ panels are wired into an inverter, which converts DC solar energy into 220VAC, and feed an export meter located on the outside wall of our house, adjacent to the import meter. The “series” system connects both meters directly to the 200 amp electrical panel in our basement. Thus far, the inverter indicates a variable range from zero (no direct sunshine) to 1780 watts (mid-afternoon), which I assume is OK for an early-spring day.

A bright, mid-afternoon, summertime sun should generate approximately $1.50/hour for two or three hours per day. My first job in 1972 was pushing carts at Loblaws and it, too, paid $1.50/hour for a few hours per day. Solar power production is certainly not a fountain of cash flow, and the ten-year-plus return on investment is hardly exciting. But it still beats pushing carts.

More details to follow!

  Ontario’s new Green Energy Act improves the return-on-investment for my solar panel project from over 15 years to 10 years. The original 42 cents per kWh payment for directing rooftop solar energy to the grid has been increased to 80.2 cents per kWh.
Read the rest of this entry »

  I ordered a 2kW rooftop solar panel array for my downtown Toronto home. Installation commences next month and should be complete by the end of December. The photovoltaic system connects to the grid through the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) under their Standard Offer Program.

The utility will buy my solar generated electricity at a rate of $0.42 per kW hour. My house buys back electricity from the utility at about $0.07 per kW hour. Although this may seem like a generous government offering, keep in mind that Germany, a world leader in solar power, pays $0.85 per kW hour for third party generated PV energy.

Governments are not motivated to do this seemingly foolish fiscal extravagance as the result of an environmentally guilty conscience. Solar energy systems deliver their product at peak consumption times, like those hot humid July afternoons when the city warns of blackouts and brownouts. The technical term is “capping” and it improves operational efficiencies by helping power utilities reduce their peak period forecasts. An installed base of a few hundred independent solar arrays might eliminate the need for a coal powered generator.

Toronto’s daily average of sunlight is only 5.5 hours and this translates into an estimated 15 year return on investment; not a great business plan but I am not in it for the money. I will be posting monthly results on this site as they roll in. Stay tuned.

  Dr. Scott’s proposal for the electricity/hydrogen solution (hydricity) requires a paradigm shift away from the general public’s perception of energy. As a result of the 1970s “energy crisis”, oil became synonymous with the word energy and its predominance as the best/only solution for powering the world became over weighted and overrated.
Read the rest of this entry »