[LINK] New Law for Citizen Owned Solar Power Stations in Canberra

[Richard Chirgwin]

On 4/03/11 9:09 AM, Ivan Trundle wrote:
> On 04/03/2011, at 8:18 AM, Tom Worthington wrote:
>
>> The Electricity Feed-in (Renewable Energy Premium) Amendment Act 2011
>> takes effect in Canberra on 7 March 2011.
>> While it will be possible to make 200kW solar arrays more efficiently
>> and cheaper than individual household units, this is still not very
>> large for a solar power station.
> The intention is to distribute the grid, and not make large solar stations. That stage is to come, if land can be found that is suitable (and that apparently is difficult in the ACT). At present, there are only 30% of homes and offices in Canberra that would be able to take any advantage of solar panels, in any event (from Actew).
>
>> It would only be the equivalent of
>> about 134 individual 1500 W household systems and could only power about
>> 100 toasters.
> 'Only' is a relative term. I know of a couple who live in Yass in a modest home, and who use less power than their 1500W system generates. Clearly their toaster array isn't very powerful.
Toasters are a very poor basis of comparison. They're only in use for 
minutes at a time rather than hours. Something that will "only" power 
100 toasters will power thousands of low-power lamps.

The chief criminals of power waste are:
- heating elements
- flat panel TVs
- inefficient refrigeration (eg, use a chest freezer rather than an upright)
- water pumps (only relevant if you're using tank water)

Every other necessity can be powered from solar with no problems.

With a grid-connected system, of course, the occasional excess (from the 
toasters, for eg) will be made up from the grid.

RC
> A 200kW solar array in Canberra would provide around 950-1000kWh/day, which power for around 60-70 average homes ('average' being the average power consumption of domestic homes in Canberra).
>
>> Another, and far more cost-effective, way for the ACT Government to
>> achieve energy savings would be to overhaul their web site.
> I'm removing my tongue from my cheek, but how many watts will this conserve, Tom? Any back-of-envelope calculations would be interesting.
>
> --
> Ivan Trundle
> http://itrundle.com ivan at itrundle.com ph 0418 244 259
>
>
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