The Riverdale NetZero Project, one of twelve projects to emerge from CMHC's EQuilibrium Housing Initiative, is now complete. It is a groundbreaking project that is the result of many people putting in many volunteer hours. It looks like the duplexes will each actually be NetCredit homes, because their performance is exceeding expectations so far.
Among all the invaluable knowledge that being introduced to Edmontonians is some data about how a solar electric system actually performs in Edmonton, Alberta.
Click here to see how half of the above-pictured solar electric array is performing right now. Remember, the collectors that are standing straight up are solar hot water collectors. The ones that are angled are solar electric modules. Each duplex is connected to 5.6 kW of panels. Today, those panels have generated over 19 kWh so far. That's a lot of juice.
Hello.
My first time visiting your site - I apologize if this has previously been discussed.
My 25 year old home is due for new roof shingles. I would like to consider either replacing them or over-laying them with solar panels. In this installation, I would be unable to reposition them. I have a 'standard' house with the usual roof pitch.
Could you give me some direction for research or a company who may do such an installation?
Regards,
Laura Jackson
Ardrossan, Alberta
Can you sell the extra power you genarate back to the electric company?
Yes you can. The process is brand new. I'm excited to learn more about it from Gordon Howell at his upcoming free talk: on February 10th, 2009.
Conrad:
The change is of January 1, 2009 within Alberta. The information is posted on the AUC's website http://www.auc.ab.ca/rule-development/micro-generation/Pages/default.asp...
I have a background in electronics and electrical systems so I understand the requirements etc. but I am afraid we have a long ways to go to make this a "retail" or DIY project. The big change I see is that of course you can now be paid for your produced power. The change the AUC has forced into the market is for micro-generators (small power producers) whoever you buy power from at a retail level is now responsible to collect the data on how much you consume vs produce and track the credits back to you. Before you had to track this yourself, submit the data monthly and if you operated as a producer and paid the fees you could sell this back to the market, however for me I am an EPCOR customer and they would not allow me to connect to their wirelines easily, it required a standalone production rather than sharing a common metering system. The data collection and submission alone was a huge barrier at any cost.
It still isn't "easy" and it took me several weeks to track down EPCOR's internal contact. Their website apparently just dumps your inquiry into a blackhole somewhere. As of 4 months ago their contact was Kirstine Hull and her e-mail was khull@epcor.ca. She is a nice person but basically you quickly get the impression none of the utilities really wants this but they are playing along. Sad considering we own EPCOR and the provincial government (who knew?). You can sell the power basically at the floating market value rather than a higher fixed price to enable calculating life-cycle costs easier.
In other forward thinking jurisdictions they guarantee a price for a fixed period of time. This is just like a mortgage calculation in reverse then. Easy to calculate. They did this in Germany a few years back and it has vaulted the country to the forefront of sloar PV utilization and manufacturing. Amazing what governments can do!
In Laura from Ardrossan's case I would recommend she also look into wind generation as well if she is a rural customer. This is a zoning issue within the city as the tower would never be approved, think of a taller cell phone tower with stabilizing wires going into your neighbour,s neighbour,s yard.
I would strongly recommend that Laura also look at a steel metal roof. I put one on my house 12 years ago and it is great. It can go right over top of an asphalt shingle roof without tearing off the old roof because it is so light weight. So no landfill for the old roof. Also it is infinitely recyclable and has a long lifespan (50 years plus).
The other future plus of a metal roof is it enables the using of the relatively new thin-film solar PV technology coming onto the market. It is early days yet but shows great promise. Here is a sample website for some background information:
http://www.uni-solar.com/
Of course your house has to face the right direction for this to work at peak efficiency. You'll have to wait awhile as well as the capacity of the manufacturers isn't high enough yet to meet demand.
Not all of the utilities have been resistant to letting solar and micro wind connect to the grid. In fact, credit goes to ENMAX for leading this change. ENMAX has facilitated connecting small scale renewable systems into their wires system for the better part of the last decade. They pioneered a pseudo net-metering solution which gave the home owner full retail value for the energy as well as the variable distribution charges. They are pushing forward still and are planning on offering solar and wind and CHP options directly to their customers. www.enmax.com
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