SOLAR IN NY...REALLY????

                                 A cloudy fall day over the River in Cape Vincent...Solar...Really???


I noticed this interesting anonymous comment over on the blog JLL.

"Anonymous said...

AN ODE TO RESIDENTIAL RENEWABLES

If you need to go green, if you need to piss away your money on a fleeting renewable ideal, then do yourself and your neighbors a favor, go SOLAR!

If you go solar you won't need big setbacks to protect your neighbors if that twirly thing flies off its tower.

If you go solar the only noise your neighbors (or you) will hear is the dew dripping off the panels on a cool morning.

If you go solar your only annual maintenance will be a rag and bottle of Windex.

If you go solar you won't have to pay for an annual turbine inspection.

If you go solar you neighbors won't have to look at this twirly thing distracting an otherwise peaceful summer evening.

If you go solar the zoning enforcement officer doesn't need a $5,000 sound meter or an expensive engineering consultant to investigate your neighbor's complaint - just a tape measure.

If you go solar you'll be doing yourself and the rest of us a big favor.

Dump turbines, go solar!"

I agree with most of this comment except the commenter left out one critical thing...

If you go solar YOU NEED SUN!!!!! And this solar thing is not all a panacea either!

If you note in my posts above I live in a solar house in AZ.  I also listed a link where you can see how much sun various US cities receive.  You might want to note that NY cities are not real high on the list.  In Flagstaff we get 78% of possible sun, in Syracuse they get 46% possible sun.  You actually need some good sun to make solar even close to economically viable...geee I think that is why the nation's big solar projects are in the desert SW.  Now I am not against solar, as I said I live in a passive solar home for over 25 years so I know a little bit about this.  But you better get real about the actual payback and how long that is going to take especially in a cloudy state like NY as it can be. Solar voltaics are a large $$$$$ investment.  However, if you want to do it as a personal commitment to the environment then good and so be it.  Robert Bryce an well known energy commenter, writer and energy analyst has solar on his house in Texas. He says his panels provide about 31% of his annual electric needs and after some upgrades he estimates it will take almost 20 years to recover his investment. Keeping in mind many people don't remain in one house that long, which is something to figure in as well.

Our passive solar house.

The thing about passive solar is it can be designed into the house from the beginning if you are building a new home and will not cost you much like retrofit or a personal solar voltaic system.  The other thing about active solar is it is like wind, traditional backup generation will need to be there in the background when the solar is not working, like at night unless you have massive battery storage, which becomes another complication and cost. So what is the environmental savings?  So in essence you aren't really shutting down any polluting power plants, they will run anyhow as base load power and as standby.  In my passive home I use the solar for heat not electric.  When I am able to use solar heat and store it for the evening I am actually NOT using a fossil fuel...natural gas.  I am stopping the use of the fuel because I am not running my gas heater.

One of our solar rooms on a winter day.  Room temp 95 degrees!

Out side temps in the 30's

In the summer hidden panels cover the roof glass to

block out the sun and the room and house stay cool.

In the summer we open skylights and doors that act as a thermo-siphons and draws in cool night air as any heat goes out the skylights.  This cools the house and concrete solar room storage floors.  During the day if it is hot we can close the doors and windows and the house will stay cool for quite a while since it is super insulated.

Today we had a high overcast with the sun coming through and our solar rooms still reached over 100 degrees.  That heat is blown into the house and the house high was 77.  Right now at 10pm it is about 40 outside and projected to go into the 20's or 30's and tonight we will use no conventional heat till morning just to take the chill off, since the house is still comfortable now at 10 pm at 73 degrees.

There are other issues the commenter has overlooked.  Last summer while we were in CV there was a large hail event here.  It damaged many roofs.  One house down the street has a large solar array on it's roof.  I don't know if the panels were damaged but they had to be completely removed which didn't look like an easy proposition so the roof could be repaired.

Solar is great, but look at it realistically.  Like I said in a previous post...there is no energy FREE LUNCH!  To me solar in NY with its weather is a stretch.