While I certainly welcome lower-cost solar panels, and would most certainly include solar power when I own my off-grid homestead, I am deeply concerned about the tens of thousands, and soon to be hundreds of thousands of acres of land being developed for industrial solar farms across the state. Information both on solar farms and smaller, more appropriate uses of solar technology.
This interactive map shows currently operating (green), under construction more then 50% complete (yellow), under construction less then 50% complete (red) industrial solar facilities (multi-acre, 1+ MW nameplate) in New York State as of April 2021, as reported by the Energy Information Agency as of June 24, 2021 -- there is a two month lag in the data for compilation and error checking.
Data Source: Energy Information Agency, Preliminary Monthly Electricity Generator Facilities EIA-860M, Released June 24, 2021. Get the data: eia.gov/electricity/data/eia860m
Doesn’t seem really necessary for county to contract out to build out solar for government uses βοΈ
I was reading a county legislator’s post the other day, and he was highlighting what another county was doing with a contract to a privately owned solar farm to provide renewable energy to county office buildings at a fixed price. While it seemed like a good idea in principal, it seemed also an wasteful example of government privatization.
So much of cost of solar these days isn’t the equipment, but of the labor to install solar panels and make the electrical connections up to code. But the thing is county governments already employ workers in Department of Public Works that have strong backs and are familiar with building maintenance and repairs. They can probably mount panels, including custom fabrication of any kind of stand or bracket the county would need for a solar installation. Moreover, county governments inevitably have small fleet of electricians on the payroll to fix common electrical problems in county buildings, and are fully qualified to make the connections between solar panels and the buildings’ existing electrical infrastructure. For design of system, they can contract out, but they don’t need to rely on external help when county employees can do it cheaper.
The county might be hesitant to plunk down a bunch of money for panels and electrical interconnection equipment, but they can bond them, especially if they have clear evidence of the savings in the out-years. By the county buying equipment directly, installing it and maintaining it in-house, this will make solar much more profitable for county in future. Why pay a separate electrician, when the county’s own staff can be dispatched to fix any problems with their panels? With so much of the cost of solar being labor these days, using county labor for solar panels on county buildings, it makes sense for county to purchase panels and supporting equipment themselves as a tax-exempt entity, and use existing labor in-house to install and maintain the system.
Predator and Honda 2000 watt generators go head to head on weight, sound and load. Impressive results for sure, and is it worth the $1000 price tag for Honda VS $450 for the Predator.
While I'm not in the immediate market for a generator, it's interesting to learn about the technology. Most off-gridders have generators, they have many capacities -- like running a heavy load like power tools or a glow plug -- and back up for cloudy winter days when solar doesn't put out enough energy to keep the battery bank fully charged. Interesting video for sure about the different technologies and why sometimes it's worthwhile to pay for quality.
Though mixing different solar panels is not recommended, it’s not forbidden and things would be ok as long as each panel’s electrical parameters (voltage, wattage, amps) are carefully considered.
When you intend to wire two panels produced by different vendors, the vendors are not the problem.
The problem is in different electrical characteristics of the panels, together with different performance degradation.
We put solar panels together to increase the solar-generated power.
“I think we’ve got to find a better way to do it, because I think net metering is going to result in a pushback against residential solar,Θ said Richard Schmalensee, economics professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, on the sidelines of the report launch in Washington, .C.
Suspected Russian government hackers breached the computer networks of the US Defense Department. The Commerce Department. The Treasury Department. The State Department. Homeland Security. Even the part of the Energy Department that oversees America’s nuclear arsenal.
