“Prospects Darken For Solar Energy Companies”
Reposting from http://www.slashdot.org :
Hugh Pickens writes"Although global demand for solar power is still growing — about 8% more solar panels will be installed this year compared with 2010 — bankruptcies, plummeting stock prices and crushing debt loads are calling into question the viability of the solar energy industry that since the 1970s has been counted on to advance the world into a new energy age. Only a handful of manufacturers are now profitable in the face of too much capacity, which has contributed to a plunge in prices as government subsidies have been curbed. Prices for solar panels started 2011 near $1.60 per watt, but a buildup of inventory forced manufacturers into a fire sale toward the end of the second quarter that has pushed prices to near $1 per watt now. 'The prices that we're seeing today are likely not covering manufacturing costs in many cases,' says Ralph Romero. With at least seven solar-panel manufacturers filing for bankruptcy or insolvency in the last several months and six of the 10 largest publicly traded companies making solar components reporting losses in the third quarter, public-market investors are punishing the solar sector, sending shares down nearly 57% this year. Although winners are expected to emerge eventually, the question is how much more carnage there will be before that happens. 'The fact of the matter is, nobody really knows which solar companies will be pushed out of business or be forced to merge,' writes industry analyst Rodolfo Avalos. 'Nobody also knows how long it will take for the solar industry to improve even when the forecasted solar global demand for the next 5-10 years is quite promising.'"
People have been complaining for years that we need to get solar prices at or below $1/watt, and now it has happened. Ignore the fact that the production companies aren't even covering manufacturing costs at these prices, and BUY BUY BUY!
Getting these companies some orders will hopefully help to drive production costs down, and now is the perfect time to get yourself set up with an inexpensive solar array for your home, small business, RV, or camp.
Back From Outer-Space
SolarDIY is back online and in action. New blog posts, new links added to reference sections, better interface, less ads!
Using Google Earth for Solar Site Selection
If you have not used Google Earth when considering a site for a solar installation, you should really give it a try. This would be useful for someone looking for property to build a solar powered or heated building, home, or business, as well as those looking to site a larger scale solar installation.
This method is not meant to substitute a proper solar site selection process, but rather to augment or be used in the site selection process itself. Obviously the resolutions available will not allow you to determine to the foot where a solar installation should be placed. This is a general method to determine approximate daylight hours on a chosen area.
All you need to do is have Google Earth installed, and find the location you wish to examine. This works better the more zoomed in you are. The basis is pretty simple. Google has built in a "Show sunlight across the landscape" feature that can be accessed from the menu along the top.
The way I use this is to spot valleys and ridges that could limit the amount of time throughout the day that the installation will see direct sunlight. If your mouse has a "middle button" you can click and hold it, and then change the tilt angle of the "viewing camera" to help spot these valleys and ridges, as well as to examine further.
Reduce Your Energy Usage Please
Just ran across a bunch of statistics while doing some stuff and decided to share them. Try to reduce your energy usage, please 
In 2008, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 11,040 kWh, an average of 920 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per month.
On average, electricity sources (coal, etc) emit 1.297 lbs CO2 per kWh. That means that each home (on average) was the contributing factor to the production of 14,318 lbs of CO2 in 2008.
Of the approximately 8 billion tons of carbon emitted each year, scientists believe about 30 percent is absorbed by the oceans, and about 30 percent is absorbed by terrestrial ecosystems, especially trees. The remaining 40 percent however, accumulates in the atmosphere.
Researchers say at least one large ocean, the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, is so loaded with CO2 that it's losing its ability to soak it up. The Southern Ocean alone accounts for 15 percent of the global carbon sink. Other oceans appear to be following suit.
Each year, an acre of Douglas fir trees can absorb 11,308.7 lbs of carbon dioxide. That means that in order to offset the amount of CO2 produced to power the average home, each home would need more than 1acre of trees.
All statistics were cited from the Department of Energy, so global warming naysayers can go away unless they're a multi-front conspiracy theorist, in which case congrats I suppose...
Charge Controller Monitoring
As new features and technologies are developed for battery charge controllers, and more systems are installed, there is a greater need for a way to monitor battery charge states, amperage/voltage from photovoltaic panels or wind turbines, and many other aspects of the system. Manufacturers of charge controllers have come up with several different methods of monitoring systems, from very basic to highly advanced.
Implementations of monitoring systems vary widely from different manufacturers both in hardware and software. Many systems incorporate a built-in LCD panel on the charge controller that will display various types of information. Also included with some charge controllers are serial (RS232) communication links which can be connected to a computer or in some cases other charge controllers for monitoring. Stepping up from the serial connection is an Ethernet connection which will generally interface with existing home/commercial networks except in the case of some manufacturers who use proprietary networking systems. Ethernet connections can be a useful tool for field technicians, as lately many laptops are not being manufactured with a serial port due to lack of demand and a desire to save space. Very few manufacturers offer wireless connections to the charge controllers through either “WIFI” connections or cell-phone/GSM/bluetooth connections, however these types of systems are becoming more common.
On the software side of monitoring systems, again there is a large variation between manufacturers. Using the data communication methods mentioned previously, information is transferred from the charge controller to either: a display panel on the controller itself, a remote display panel, or a computer. Several companies offer standalone software with their charge controllers either with purchase of the charge controller, free altogether, or as an option for a higher price. Other manufacturers have the option of a setup that sends information from the controller to a computer, and then from the computer this information is uploaded to a website on the internet, where the data can be viewed in various graphs and charts. Apollo Solar and other manufacturers have taken this a step further by offering a cellular modem that will connect to their data communication gateway and communicate the data to a webserver anywhere in the world that there is a cellular connection. This would be especially useful in remote off-grid situations where a cell phone signal is still obtainable.
Many companies have decided to offer only minimal monitoring capabilities on the charge controllers themselves, and instead sell additional accessories that can be added to the system to facilitate monitoring. Rogue Engineering is one of these manufacturers that offers two options of monitoring accessories that also double as data loggers and can store data for historical analysis. The higher end system they offer is PLC based with an open source operating system that can be modified to suit the user’s needs if desired, however this is rather advanced and would more than likely be applicable only to commercial users except in the case of residential users with a high likelyhood of customizing and ‘tinkering’ with systems.
|
Manufacturer |
LCD |
Ethernet |
Serial |
Wireless/GSM |
Software |
Website Monitoring |
Remote LCD |
|
Apollo |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
Tristar |
YES |
NO |
YES |
NO |
YES |
NO |
YES |
|
Outback |
YES |
NO |
YES |
NO |
YES |
NO |
YES |
|
Blue Sky |
NO |
NO |
NO |
NO |
NO |
NO |
YES |
|
Fronius |
YES |
YES |
NO |
YES |
YES |
YES |
YES |
|
Rogue |
YES |
YES |
YES |
NO |
YES |
NO |
NO |
|
SunWare |
YES |
NO |
NO |
NO |
NO |
NO |
YES |
Table 1: Charge Controller Feature Comparison
The two manufacturers that I encountered who offered the most flexibility in their monitoring systems were Apollo Solar, and Fronius. Many of the manufacturers have severely limited monitoring/data communication options as demonstrated in Table 1. I feel as though these companies are losing out on a large potential customer base with such limited options. Our world is becoming increasingly information driven, and to add to that the information needs to be available quickly and conveniently. With a lack of network connectivity a charge controller is much less attractive to someone that wishes to monitor the system closely while still being able to actually leave the location.
References:
http://www.fronius.com/cps/rde/xchg/SID-03B69EC8-F88A47D4/fronius_usa/hs.xsl/2714_1447.htm
https://www.rogue-engr.com/cportal/
http://www.affordable-solar.com/tristar.ts.45.charge.controller.45amp.htm
http://www.outbackpower.com/products/charge_controllers/
http://www.blueskyenergyinc.com/
Using “junk” for Solar Water Heating Systems
I saw this post on Instructables called Solar Thermal Water Heater For Less Than Five Dollars
Obviously it is going to cost more than $5 to be able to actually use this for something, but I had never thought of using the coil from the back of a refrigerator as the tubing inside a flat plate collector before. Don't get me wrong, I find junk laying around all over the place and love to think up ways to use it, this is just one piece of junk I hadn't considered for a flat plate solar hot water collector.
They claim pretty decent heating with their not so great setup, so with some small improvements it would probably work quite decently. To do any decent scale I would probably connect a few of the coils in a parallel arrangement with headers of a larger diameter than the coils themselves.
Well reading about all that got the wheels in my head rolling and I ended up at this post on PhysicsForum about using a car radiator as a heat exchanger in a solar water heater setup. This particular setup was for preheating biodiesel to cut down on electricity costs during production, but had some excellent points. Unfortunately they never followed up with any results.
So then I stumbled over to this site about a Solar Water Heater made from a car radiator. This is also in a flat plate setup. But of course they want you to spend money on some book rather than sharing information about it.
Well being put off by being asked to pay for access to information, I dug around some more and found this crazy long usenet forum post with lots of good info about solar water heaters, mostly related to using a car radiator as a solar collector.
From there I ended up at the Iowa Renewable Energy Association's website where I found this little blurb about using a car radiator and a fan in a solar heating system:
"Storage of solar energy in water has been a proven method over many years. This water can be used as DHW, but also can be used to heat some or all of your house, garage, or workshop. To install enough solar panels and storage to heat an entire older home would be expensive, so most people try to do just some space heat. If your house is modern and very energy efficient, then solar could do a large part of your heating. An easy method is to install "kickspace heaters," which can be as simple as a car radiator and a fan to distribute the heat from the water storage to one or two rooms."
This info comes from their page on Solar Thermal but definitely check out the rest of the site as they have loads of good information.
Using recycled parts is great, especially in something like a solar water heater, and so stuff like this really makes me think. If anyone can think of any other relatively common objects/materials that can be repurposed for a solar heater (yeah we've all heard about the soda can heaters, and recycled pipe and fittings are awesome but hopefully most folks would think of that), leave a comment here on this post.
That's all for now, just wanted to ramble about my thought process and the various places and things the internet can lead you to see and read about in a short period of time.