During winter months, the solar cells would add significantly less range - probably less than 10 miles per day. If you drive more than that each day you would have to plug in every day to maintain the charge. Of course you could skip charging some days, but that is beside the point. The solar cells are never going to come close to being practical in an economic sense.
Electric Vehicles
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arthwollipot
Limerick Purist
I agree that this would probably be more practical.
I've been saying for many years that decentralisation is the key to the power grid of the future.
Roger Ramjets
Philosopher
I love how they describe a 17% reduction as 'slashing' - hyperbole much?
Reducing the cap is a good thing, because it will encourage the sale of cheaper vehicles. A cap of £35,000 is fine - the latest Nissan Leaf Accenta is already under £30,000 even before taking off the grant.
SezMe
post-pre-born
You thought I was being literal? Sheesh, lighten up.
Delvo
Дэлво Δε&#
I have tried, but, for me, dieting really just means spending all day pretty hungry, and it's just not worth the constant torture.
bruto
Penultimate Amazing
In our town, the electric grid is so close to capacity that nothing larger than home-sized installations is even possible, so decentralization is definitely the way to go here. I'm still looking for a decently priced solar installation but my geographic and building placement is far from ideal. I was contacted by a solar company that was supposedly going to do an estimate, but they never got back to me. I think they saw the aerial map and decided to skip it.
Hellbound
Merchant of Doom
I think it’s comparable to the computer industry, in a way. Started with mainframes and dumb terminals (centralized production). Then shifted to distributed apps with cheap and powerful PCs, then back to a sort of mixed model in most places (PCs and distributed servers for most things, and a few centralized nodes for larger, specialized jobs).
I’d think we’d be moving towards something similar. Centralization provides a lot of benefits, like easier control/reduction of waste products. Now that there are more “green” options, I think it would make sense for a more distributed layout. Local generation for low-density applications (residential), with larger centralized production for things like industrial use and for redundancy (can be stepped up to support higher usage times or cover down time of local stations).
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Hellbound
Merchant of Doom
To a degree, yes. My point was I think we’ll move more to a distributed model, with more smaller generation centers.
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acbytesla
Penultimate Amazing
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The JLTV beats it hands down.
acbytesla
Penultimate Amazing
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Where do live may I ask?
SezMe
post-pre-born
Vermont.
acbytesla
Penultimate Amazing
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You or Bruto? I was curious because I have helped a few people install solar panels. Bruto seems to believe his home is geographically unsuited for solar.
bruto
Penultimate Amazing
Western edge of Vermont. The general area is not unsuited to solar, and there are a couple of big solar farms in the area.
My own plot of land has various problems. It's not impossible, but difficult to figure out how to do it without considerable expense or an unpleasant obstruction of view, or both. I have 20 acres, but much of that is swamp, forest and ledge.
Filippo Lippi
Philosopher
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acbytesla
Penultimate Amazing
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Not sure what "ledge" is. Swamp doesn't sound fun. Grid tied or off grid or some kind of hybrid? You're not thinking of roof mounting?
Usually the biggest issue is shade from trees. Partial shade from even a few branches can affect an entire string of panels depending on the panels you choose. If that isn't an issue you can go with cheaper panels and cheaper inverters. These would be string inverters.
If partial shade is a potential issue, you might be better off going with the more premium solutions such as multi-bar panels and either DC panel optimizers like Solaredge or Enphase panel AC inverters.
This is why price quotes for solar install can vary a lot.
Just look for best Southeasterly to Southwesterly pointing area which eliminates that from being an issue.
They say for an average home, think about 10.6Kwh install. That would be slightly more than 35ea 300 watt panels. But who the hell is average? If you have 20 acres, you're not average. And if you're planning on charging up a few cars, you might want to go with more.
Does your state offer a tax credit for solar? I'm pretty sure the Feds still offer a 25% tax credit, but I believe that is going away.
bruto
Penultimate Amazing
Our state does offer some solar credit, not sure what current situation is. And we have a pretty good net metering setup as well, because the power company is really eager not to have to build more lines.
We have, essentially, no southwesterly facing spot that is not either shaded by treelines or buildings, at the bottom of a hill, or part of the house, which has a highly interrupted slate roof (dormers, etc.) that is not suitable for solar panels, at least according to the solar folks I've spoken to.
By ledge, I mean impassable cliffs of shale and slate. About a quarter to a third of my land is wooded, and on top of said cliffs. Not much use, but nice, and a neighbor taps the trees, so I get a couple of gallons of syrup every spring.
There are a couple of possible sites facing more south and north than southeast or west, on which it might be possible to put a tracking collector or two, but a good bit of further planning is called for.
Given the situation here with net metering, I'd expect whatever installation I have to be tied to the grid, but probably with some preference for local first, since the grid never pays for input at the same rate it charges for output.
acbytesla
Penultimate Amazing
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OK, grid tied. Didn't know if we were talking about some isolated cabin far from the grid. Sounds like a nice home. Slate tile roof. Nice, but not conducive to mounting the racking and the panels. I get it. Grid tied inverters automatically shut down with the power grid to protect power line workers while they are repairing the grid. South would be fine. Youre
going to lose whatever sun power to the east or the west that is going to be obstructed.
Heliostats (sun trackers) are too expensive for most people. It's usually more cost effective to add more panels.
Sounds as if your install would be a bit tricky. The most important thing for you is to get a reasonable expectation of your need, what the cost would be and the payoff. But it would be cheaper than a slate tile roof though.
bruto
Penultimate Amazing
A little side note on roofs. I am at the margin of what is called "the colored slate capital of the world." Every older house around here has a slate roof. So does my barn.
I rummaged a bit and found a couple of pictures, which might help to clarify.
First is at the top of my back hill, looking down at house and barn, pointed a bit west of north;
This is from the backyard of the house, looking up to the SSE or so, the position of the first picture off the screen to the right and up.
The last is standing in what might be one of the better places for a panel, except that its a couple of hundred feet from the meter with stone ledge that means it would probably have to go through conduit rather than burial. We are looking more or less northwest. Just north of the pond, the land jogs far to the right, and the tree line seen to the right is at the base of the ledge. Between the ledge and the clear field seen to the north of the pond is marshy . The field could possibly support a solar array, but tying into the grid at the distance might be expensive.
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