California To Place Solar Panels On Commercial Buildings
By Nick April 3, 2008
The State of California is looking to keep their promise of generating 20 percent of the electricity from renewable energy until 2010. A new five-year project has been launched by Southern California Edison consisting of building solar photovoltaic panels on commercial rooftops.
These solar panels will have a total area of 2 square miles and will generate 250 Megawatts of power which is enough for about 160,000 homes. In order to place the solar panels on commercial buildings, about $875 millions will be needed.
Although the panels will be placed on commercial buildings, the businesses will not be the owners of them, but they will have an agreement with a provider that will sell the electricity. The project is expected to be a success and they will not stop here because there is a big step until they reach that 20 percent of renewable energy.
Topics: Energy |
6 Responses to “California To Place Solar Panels On Commercial Buildings”
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Great idea, this is awesome. Unfortunately, my attention was distracted by the ‘timetotalk.org: the partnership by a drug-free america’ directly beneath this comment box; I learned the hard way that Uncle Sam does nothing but lie about illegal drugs, that illegal drugs were legal for 99.9% of recorded history, and they were outlawed NOT because they were truly dangerous (they are much, much less dangerous than alcohol, which is legal) but because using them were minority habits that minorities brought with them when they emigrated to America. Also notice how the Civil War ended slavery in the states in 1965 and then anti-drug possession laws (completely contrary to the foundation our founding fathers fought and died for) began in 1904, effectively putting non-violent ‘criminals’, mostly minorities, in jail…where they perform slave-like work for pennies on the dollar. Hmmm…
very interesting comment, Phil !
Do these solar cells produce enough energy over their lifetime to pay for their cost, installation, and upkeep?
Probably not. At a fairly modest estimate of 5 cents per KW.h, the panels would have to last 70,000 hours to make back the $875M initial investment. Assuming you get 12 hours a day of solid daylight, that’s nearly 20 years - a pretty long payback period. Considering how these things are exposed to the elements (and acid rain of SoCal), I highly doubt they will last 20 years.
Cherjrw is fairly right in that solar panels have a relatively long payback period, although he lowballs the price that the electricity can fetch in California. You can safely add on a few cents per kWh (average residential cost is almost 15 cents, and commercial/industrial is a bit lower): http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_b.html. Naturally you’ll have other costs besides installation, but not enough to bring the profit per kWh to 5 cents.
So we’re realistically looking at a payoff period between 10 and 20 years, still well outside the range of a reasonable payoff. Add in the potential environmental benefits and you can imagine a more reasonable payoff if you care about that sort of thing.
That said, these panels will easily last 20 years with proper maintenance, and since the quality of their maintenance and cleaning directly affects how much power they’re putting out, you can be sure that they will be taken care of by whoever is operating them.
On a more personal note, I live right near where they’re planning to install these panels (The Fontana/Ontario/Rancho Cucamonga area), and you’d be amazed by the almost unimaginable number of warehouses and distribution centers clustered in that are. When you fly into Ontario airport, the last 2-3 minutes of the approach is over nothing but warehouses. For those with an eye to long-term investments on a large scale, there’s money to be made. Just not in a hurry. And heck, government support and subsidization makes it a more enticing industry.
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to place the panels on land instead of buildings. How much addition cost is it to engineer the building for the weight load. And when was the last time the government came in on budget? Also, one needs to factor in cloudy days and the first few and last few hours of sunlight which doesn’t have much of an impact on energy generation. Your 12 hour day quickly is reduced to about 8.5 hours per day. Your 10 to 20 years is increased to 18 to 34 years. The units loose between 3 and 5% of their ability to generate power per year. Last but not least add in the maintenance that will be needed to be a success.