AN UNWILLING PARTICIPANT

Looking back on my blog I see its very repetitive.   Also far to much information that is not easily understood by the average person.

This blog is revised.  This short piece of information is just another piece of the knowledge base that will help you understand solar power in terms of sunhours.

A sunhour is not the same as sunlight hours in terms of solar calculations.


An analogy might help complete the picture. Imagine that you have to pour sunshine into buckets , and each holds 1,000 watt-hours of solar energy. The fastest rate of filling that bucket will occur at solar noon in the summer, when the sunlight is overhead and perpendicular to the solar panel.  At that time, you could fill a 1,000-watt-hour bucket in 1 hour (1 KWH per hour). At any other time of the day, however, it will take longer than 1 hour to get an equivalent “bucket” of 1 peak sun-hour.

Years of data for Nelson shows we receive from 900 - 1000 annual sunhours for solar calculations.

The 50 kW Nelson solar garden might earn from 45 - 50,000 kWh annually.  About 4 average homes.

That is in a perfect world where everything is new and working.  Dust, dirt, snow, underperforming panels and aging panels that make less power every year will change this.

Yet the consulting engineers report and financial calculations are based on their figure of 61,000kWh.
Of the dozens of public sites in BC offering public data this isn't found other than in Canada's only desert climate - around Osoyoos and Oliver.

The Nelson solar garden contractor has stated publicly, experts say we might earn in excess of  70,000kWh.

With dual axis tracking where motors track the sun in azimuth and elevation, there is a gain, some suggest 30% or more.  All expert advice says its cheaper to add 30% more panels than to involved dual motors attempting to move a set of solar panels every few minutes up and down as required for the next 20 years if solar panels last that long.    But no explanation is given to these claims that continuously form part of the internet "free" solar power propaganda.

Here is a classic....another waste of public money for solar power.  The washroom at the skatepark.

Look at the picture, two engineers and a building technologist...

A city councillor in the middle at the time of this project, a green washroom, super insulated, solar light and hot water (it didn't make enough power for a mouse to wash its foot).   Enough money spent here to put a washroom in every city park.  This one closed for the winter and at night.  A big skylight and simple building not the mud straw demonstration whatever it was.

And did the solar panels see any sunlight?  NO they are under trees!!!