PV panels?

Gumbo

I finished the day with 10.76 kWh generated.
But only 2.5kwh went to the cylinder through the immersion before it reached its indicated max temp. I have the immersion set at 60 degrees.

Now I was in the gym last night so showered there so very possible it was heating it from a higher temp than normal. It’s a 200L modern insulated copper cylinder.

Not sure how much of the balance was used by the house and diverted to the grid though.

gally74

unkel wrote: »

Just got an email from them stating the above prices are +VAT (so not included). He didn't tell me that on the phone.

Think you get the vat back thru the home refurb program

Pauldub

Hi Guys,
I am getting confused by the appropriate size cable required to connect pv panels. I have bought 15 Axitec PV Solar Panels AC-260P / 156-60S. I have a sunnyboy 4000tl inverter, I am using the sma solar design tool which is telling me I need wiring cross sectional of 1,5 mm2. Is this right? all suggestions would be appreciated. The distance from the panels to the inverter is approx 20 meters.

quentingargan

Pauldub wrote: »

Hi Guys,
I am getting confused by the appropriate size cable required to connect pv panels. I have bought 15 Axitec PV Solar Panels AC-260P / 156-60S. I have a sunnyboy 4000tl inverter, I am using the sma solar design tool which is telling me I need wiring cross sectional of 1,5 mm2. Is this right? all suggestions would be appreciated. The distance from the panels to the inverter is approx 20 meters.

No matter how many panels you put in series, the current remains the same, so strangely enough, the more panels you put on, the lower your voltage drop as a percentage. Maybe that's why SMA does this. But I don't think you can buy solar cable in less than 4mm and in terms of voltage loss, I would use this if you are working over 20m.

Pauldub

Thanks, just wasnt sure, there are calculators online also, but not too sure what parameters to input into them, just construction my frame at the moment and looking forward to installing the panels.

quentingargan

You should have a data sheet for the panels. Your string voltage will be Vmpp x 15. Your current will be Impp.

You need to check that Vmpp x 15 x 1.15 is less than the maximum input voltage of your inverter. If not, you need to break it into two strings, 8 and 7 panels and wire into 2 inputs of the inverter.

niallers1

Was quoted follwoing from Solar Panel team.
4250+Vat
8 x 300 watt panels
1X inverter with 10 year warranty 
1 Eddie smart immersion
Mounting kit and electric components fitted to ESB network standards.

Anybody have any idea how much the talked about grant will be?

Shefwedfan

niallers1 wrote: »

Was quoted follwoing from Solar Panel team.
4250+Vat
8 x 300 watt panels
1X inverter with 10 year warranty
1 Eddie smart immersion
Mounting kit and electric components fitted to ESB network standards.

Anybody have any idea how much the talked about grant will be?

Similar to the Thermal I would guess....

But expect those prices to go up once it is announced....

Water John

Well, he has a quote. Prices will probably go up yes, but they would be unlikely to try gazzumping, someone already quoted.

unkel

At those prices, payback time is several decades.

funnyname

I read something over the weekend that it was going to €500 per kW installed, or did I dream that.

niallers1 wrote: »

Was quoted follwoing from Solar Panel team.
4250+Vat
8 x 300 watt panels
1X inverter with 10 year warranty 
1 Eddie smart immersion
Mounting kit and electric components fitted to ESB network standards.

Anybody have any idea how much the talked about grant will be?

KCross

funnyname wrote: »

I read something over the weekend that it was going to €500 per kW installed, or did I dream that.

I read that too but it wasn't a confirmed figure. It was a proposal from a lobby group.

KCross

It has this goal...

Supports for changing out oil-fired boilers to heat pumps, along with the provision of roof solar, in at least 170,000 homes

This NDP isn't worth the paper its written on at the moment but maybe it will happen! We can but dream!

Shefwedfan

KCross wrote: »

It has this goal...

Supports for changing out oil-fired boilers to heat pumps, along with the provision of roof solar, in at least 170,000 homes

This NDP isn't worth the paper its written on at the moment but maybe it will happen! We can but dream!

The same day as they come out with this document I was told by local councillor(see below).Absolute joke, they are runinig the countryside and wasting the roof space which is all around the country.......what the bets the company rolling these out are getting massive "green" grants

Planning permission granted for Solar Farm at Harlockstown, Ashbourne, (Ratoath Road- R125)
On 134 acres

Water John

There are no as in zero, green grants available. There will be some form of REFIT price, when the Minister gets around to it. The financing of such projects is what pushes it towards large corporate players.
That seems to be a development of 20/25Mw in size.

You may be opposed to it on visual grounds, but don't mix up the two issues.

Shefwedfan

Water John wrote: »

There are no as in zero, green grants available. There will be some form of REFIT price, when the Minister gets around to it. The financing of such projects is what pushes it towards large corporate players.
That seems to be a development of 20/25Mw in size.

You may be opposed to it on visual grounds, but don't mix up the two issues.

Not really 2 issues. Instead of using up fields and ruining the countryside there is thousands and thousands of roof space which could be used to generate solar.

Solar PV is solar PV, if you put onto roofs of houses then no need to fill up fields when you can generate the same power from roof tops

quentingargan

Water John wrote: »

There are no as in zero, green grants available. There will be some form of REFIT price, when the Minister gets around to it. The financing of such projects is what pushes it towards large corporate players.
That seems to be a development of 20/25Mw in size.

You may be opposed to it on visual grounds, but don't mix up the two issues.

The people working on these solar parks are very well connected. I would confuse the issues just a bit. There will be a feed in tariff announced sometime, we have been waiting for it for years, but you don't see speculative planning applications for industrial rooftops. It seems that the ground-mount folks know something that the rest of us don't. Otherwise they would not be spending millions of investors money in such a speculative manner.

See here for example. This is a former Bord Gais CEO, onetime Dail candidate, backed by an Australian fund, one time ESB executive, promoting solar parks and, by his own admission, lobbying government.

Do we want our PSO levy exporting solar park profits to Australia? In the UK and elsewhere, these parks gobbled up grid capacity for solar, locking everyone else out.

I'm a great fan of solar, and field scale has a role to play, but we urgently need more participation in the decisions about how this is rolled out.

unkel

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Solar PV is solar PV, if you put onto roofs of houses then no need to fill up fields when you can generate the same power from roof tops

Exactly. A few years of PV install subsidies and generous FIT have millions of homeowners plaster the roofs of their houses in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany with PV panels. This is a very common sight:



Almost 20kW :cool:

quentingargan

Just reading that article. each 25 acre park "would take about 14 weeks to build and employ 30 to 40 workers in their construction"

So 32,000 workers for a year would be about 85,000 acres, or 3,400 such solar parks. Then not much work for the next 25 years. And that is for between 15Gw and 21Gw. Really?:rolleyes:

Jobs is always a nice soundbite, but this is nonsense.

Water John

Yes, there is a good mix in Germany of roof top and park.

Pauldub

Hi all, sorry for hijacking thread, i am installing 15 pv panels and have bought a sunnyboy 4000tl, sunnyweb has designed it in single string as max voltage wont be exceeded. my question is to set the country data set, there are two rotary knobs, and i have looked up the data set for Ireland which is en 50438, which equates to knob a set to 6 and knob b set to 1 for English. is this all i have to do before commissioning it, i think i connect panels turn braker of on ac side let it start and it should be set to match our grid, am I correct, all help appreciated

quentingargan

quentingargan wrote: »

Jobs is always a nice soundbite, but this is nonsense.

Total [*censored#] and paddywhackery if you ask me.

If we all discarded our waste on the streets there'd be plentya jobs-for-the-boys cleaning it up too. Or we could exhibit some dignity and future thinking and instead of cleaning rubbish those boys could step up a tier and do something more constructive and free up taxes while we're at it.

Why would you fix a road when you could just fill the potholes with an overzealous lump of tar and be paid again next year to do it again?

There'll be plenty more jobs-for-the-boys taking them outtov the fields when we want the agriculture back and putting them on the rooves. Still sound clever?

If they start anchoring them with concrete they're selling exploitation not services. :mad:

Jobs for the boys....so were famine roads..:mad: :mad:

quentingargan

Pauldub wrote: »

Hi all, sorry for hijacking thread, i am installing 15 pv panels and have bought a sunnyboy 4000tl, sunnyweb has designed it in single string as max voltage wont be exceeded. my question is to set the country data set, there are two rotary knobs, and i have looked up the data set for Ireland which is en 50438, which equates to knob a set to 6 and knob b set to 1 for English. is this all i have to do before commissioning it, i think i connect panels turn braker of on ac side let it start and it should be set to match our grid, am I correct, all help appreciated

It will match the grid regardless of the grid setting you use, but there is an Irish version of EN50438 you should be using. You will need the Irish En50438 cert for ESB to go with your NC6 form.

gally74

Any idea when this pilot will be announced?

The progress seems glacial....

Water John

gally you're right. This article may be timely. Micro Renewable Energy Federation on a push. Scheme supposed to be announced for the Summer.
Worth a read:
http://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/200000-solar-pv-installations-is-a-realistic-target-for-ireland-by-2025/

quentingargan

MREF, the microgeneration lobby group got a letter on this from Minister Naughton which was clearly intended to dampen down expectations. I wouldn't get too excited and it is clear that more public pressure needs to be brought to bear if solar is not to become the sole domain of solar parks owned by overseas fund investors living on lobster bought from our PSO levy...:mad:

......."As you will be aware, on foot of the October 2017 stakeholder workshop, hosted by my Department and the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), along with further engagement with the micro-generation industry including your organisation, I have asked the SEAI to conduct a short study to assess the likely demand for and impact of micro-generation among the public. It is essential that before we deploy further public money, we validate the potential demand and projected costs of such a scheme, in an Irish context.
Bringing micro-generation into a system designed for large generators is complicated. It impacts how we pay for the network, manage regulation and technically manage the system. My Department therefore will continue to work closely with the micro-generation sector and the SEAI to better understand how to validate and further develop policies to support micro-generation in a fair and cost-effective manner.

The proposed pilot scheme will commence this summer and will target solar PV and self-consumption among domestic customers. The data gathered during this scheme and throughout the behaviour and attitudes study will inform potential future phases of support for micro-generation in Ireland as we align with the ambition of the Recast Renewable Energy Directive, which recognises the rights, entitlements and obligations of renewable self-consumers. I want to be very clear at this point, there are no immediate plans to extend this scheme to non-domestic customers and the pilot scheme will be ring-fenced with a budget cap and a clear end-date.

Furthermore, there is nothing regarding my announcement of 31 January that should meaningfully prevent commercial owners, farmers, SMEs taking solar PV investment decisions given that I clearly outlined the first phase would focus on self-consumption for domestic consumers only and that any future phases would be based on strong data and evidence to support them.

Details of the pilot scheme for domestic rooftop solar PV self-consumption will be made available when I have received the study being undertaken by the SEAI and have had an opportunity to consider its analysis. I can confirm at this stage my preference that the pilot scheme is linked to energy efficiency and technological innovation, and I have asked the SEAI to explore how these design elements can be incorporated into the pilot.
.......

Water John

That is sad reading. I know nobody wants a copy of the NI ash issue but micro is in many countries and it should be quite simple to transpose the best practise from these. Does this Minister think he'll be in office for the next 10 years or does he see his job as just, holding the wheel.

quentingargan

Water John wrote: »

That is sad reading. I know nobody wants a copy of the NI ash issue but micro is in many countries and it should be quite simple to transpose the best practise from these. Does this Minister think he'll be in office for the next 10 years or does he see his job as just, holding the wheel.

I think the whole Department is muzzled by advice from ESB whose model is large generators ---- grid--- customer. There is a lot of scaremongering that the grid network cannot be viable unless we are all using it to buy and sell electricity.

That is nonsense. Smart metering allows electricity to be bought and sold from micro and large stations automatically. If the grid is doing less transmission, it has to be funded from standing charges. This is all solvable if you want to solve it. ESB probably doesn't.

Shefwedfan

Not 100% sure what the section above means......from what I can gather he is unwilling to look at FiT for standard home users but nothing to stop themselves setting themselves up to install Solar PV for their own use?

No mention of grant for home users

quentingargan

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Not 100% sure what the section above means......from what I can gather he is unwilling to look at FiT for standard home users but nothing to stop themselves setting themselves up to install Solar PV for their own use?

No mention of grant for home users

Exactly! "there is nothing regarding my announcement of 31 January that should meaningfully prevent commercial owners, farmers, SMEs taking solar PV investment decisions"

In other words, don't wait for decisions from our Department. Install a system if you want to, but don't expect any help.:rolleyes: