DIY energy: UK solar inventions could reduce bills

[Stig]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-60922527

For the first company's product it says:

Aiming to supply an average of 1,000 kWh a year in the UK, Solivus will guarantee the £3,500 Arc for 20 years and plans to let buyers pay in instalments.

And then from the second company:

Filia founder David Wharton wants the new advances in solar film to give everyone a chance to harvest the Sun's energy.
"To date solar has been just for the rich," he said.

I'd argue that £3.5k for 1000kWh a year is still just for the rich - that's about what a rooftop install cost over 10 years ago (£4k/kWp). Admittedly you don't have the fixed cost of scaffolding and structural survey of roof timbers on a ground-based system but I wonder what a 1kWp roof system would cost to install today...

Still, I guess it's early days for these thin film products so costs are likely to fall, and using solar blinds to power aircon in places that need it does sound like a neat idea.

[Ken]

Seem to forget that for all intents and purposes solar PV in winter (Dec,Jan, Feb) is zero.

[ClockmanFRA]

Ken,

Our 21 years of Renewable Energy and Sustainability Project.

Originally 15 years ago the efficiency of PV in ambient light was not so good.

The latest panels, ie the Monocrystalline 120 cell type has doubled ambient light efficiency.

Originally i wanted 30KW of PV to give me a 3KW in those gloomy winter months, however I am always pleasantly surprised to see PV getting better and better in ambient light conditions.

Practical in use every day Monocrystalline PV we have here to get to 30KW. Sharpe, Panasonic, Knive (now all failed), Yingli, Longi, Trina, Solarworld (German) and 3 other early Chinese makes that have disappeared and these now struggle to get to full output.

Our Earliest is Amorphous silicone and started experimenting with 200w in 1989. These are Now redundant and about to be replaced, (when i get time), but were excellent efficiency in ambient light conditions. However for the same surface area covered by the 150w amorphous Silicone panels i can now fit 2KW of the latest Monocrystalline PV panels that now also have better ambient light efficiency.

Here in France most small 3KW installations are actively encourage and even laws saying you can create and use your own electricity. Micro inverters are big use here, and having restrictors on the 220vac output, and with panels getting under the EEC legislation with under 50vdc input and then using EDF as a virtual battery. The French are very very good and masters at getting around regulations and rules. Even on Static arrays authorities here have to give permission unless you live in a Historic Zone for roof erections, and under 1.8m from the ground you can put up arrays as much as you want. see .... CRÉATIONS AUTOCONSOMMATION SOLAIRE on facebook for how they get around legislation and all the 3kw kits being sold.

I trust this helps.

[Joeboy]

Seem to forget that for all intents and purposes solar PV in winter (Dec,Jan, Feb) is zero.

I installed extra panels to reduce the impact of shoulder months. Feb 22 being the first Winter with all 9kW being in place. We managed a none too shabby 224kWh production in that month. Dec and January were terrible and I agree that up here in N Scotland those months are a write off(for me).

Feb 20 5kW pv generated 110kWh @19.08p = £20.98
Feb 21 7kW pv generated 183kWh @19.08p = £34.91
Feb 22 9kW pv generated 224Kwh @19.08p = £42.73

I would need approx 18kW PV installed to hit the 0.5MWh in Feb.

As Clockman says, PV has massively improved in its performance over the years and I think we are getting into a place where the shoulder months are moveable? Interested to hear how other location fair across the poorer months?

[Fintray]

I'm not far from Joeboy but with very little shading on my panels, my average results from the 2 systems totalling 14.24kW peak for the 4 winters 18/19 - 21/22:
Dec - 189kWh
Jan - 360kWh
Feb - 596kWh

[Joeboy]

I'm not far from Joeboy but with very little shading on my panels, my average results from the 2 systems totalling 14.24kW peak for the 4 winters 18/19 - 21/22:
Dec - 189kWh
Jan - 360kWh
Feb - 596kWh

That's a decent amount of power Iain! Over 1MWh in the 'off' months, nice! You are 41.85kWp and i am 24.88kWp for Feb. Huge difference, right I'm moving the house up besdie you!

Just shows the effect overspeccing on Size can have (& location). TBH, I'd keep going and have another 2kW on my roof and damn the expense but swmbo has been very understanding to date and I won't abuse that.

[nowty]

I'm not far from Joeboy but with very little shading on my panels, my average results from the 2 systems totalling 14.24kW peak for the 4 winters 18/19 - 21/22:
Dec - 189kWh
Jan - 360kWh
Feb - 596kWh

My system size is fairly comparable with Fintray's but I suffer terrible winter shading on over half of mine. On the same average for the past 4 winters, mine are,

Dec - 204 kWh
Jan - 262 kWh
Feb - 460 kWh

[Moxi]

Do you think theres a case for some sort of small winter tracker system ?

200 Watts here would cover the base for the house most of the day and a strategically placed small panel with tracker would probably achieve that in many conditions.

I'm finding with my set up at the minute that strategically placed small panels are giving better returns than larger systems in marginal conditions.

Moxi

[nowty]

Do you think theres a case for some sort of small winter tracker system ?

200 Watts here would cover the base for the house most of the day and a strategically placed small panel with tracker would probably achieve that in many conditions.

I'm finding with my set up at the minute that strategically placed small panels are giving better returns than larger systems in marginal conditions.

Moxi

No because in winter the sun is almost in the same place, rises in SE, does not get very high and sets in the SW. You just need steep angled, unshaded south facing.

In summer the sun is all over the place, rises in the NE and sets in the NW and travels a very high arc.

[Stinsy]

Do you think theres a case for some sort of small winter tracker system ?

200 Watts here would cover the base for the house most of the day and a strategically placed small panel with tracker would probably achieve that in many conditions.

I'm finding with my set up at the minute that strategically placed small panels are giving better returns than larger systems in marginal conditions.

Moxi

The problem is that there simply isn't very much sunlight from which to extract energy! Nothing can escape that fact.

In bright-overcast conditions then a horizontal array does best, when the sun does shine in winter the angle will be low so a steeply-angled array is best. However most of the time your array could be pointed wherever you like, it still wouldn't generate anything of use, so the: complex, expensive, failure-prone, tracker, would make precious-little difference.