SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
In the US, a new solar project is installed every 3.2 minutes and the number of cumulative installations now stands at more than 500,000. For years, homeowners who bought solar panels were advised to mount them on the roof facing south to capture the most solar energy over the course of the day. Now Matthew L. Wald writes in the NYT that panels should be pointed south so that peak power comes in the afternoon when the electricity is more valuable. In late afternoon, homeowners are more likely to watch TV, turn on the lights or run the dishwasher. Electricity prices are also higher at that period of peak demand. “The predominance of south-facing panels may reflect a severe misalignment in energy supply and demand,” say the authors of the study, Barry Fischer and Ben Harack. Pointing panels to the west means that in the hour beginning at 5 p.m., they produce 55 percent of their peak output. But point them to the south to maximize total output, and when the electric grid needs it most, they are producing only 15 percent of peak.
While some solar panel owners are paid time-of-use rates and are compensated by the utility in proportion to prices on the wholesale electric grid, many panel owners cannot take advantage of the higher value of electricity at peak hours because they are paid a flat rate, so the payment system creates an incentive for the homeowner to do the wrong thing. The California Energy Commission recently announced a bonus of up to $500 for new installations that point west. "We are hoping to squeeze more energy out of the afternoon daylight hours when electricity demand is highest," says David Hochschild, lead commissioner for the agency’s renewable energy division, which will be administering the program. "By encouraging west-facing solar systems, we can better match our renewable supply with energy demand."
(Score: 2) by Blackmoore on Thursday December 04 2014, @11:04PM
or you mount your panels on a pivot and have them move with the sun to receive maximum solar input - tracking the sun as it arcs through the sky.
but yeah. mounting them solid is cheaper. so that's what most installations are. So; you could mount it facing any direction BUT north depending on when you want the most going into you local storage.
but I don't seem to recall Iron/acid deep sink batteries being available any more.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Arik on Thursday December 04 2014, @11:37PM
Increased complexity imposes a cost of its own on top of the ticket price; I'll give you a computer analogy, it's kind of like systemd - all these extra parts mean more places for things to break. So you can expect your fancy tracker system to not only cost more upfront, but also to break and require maintenance more often. ;)
Again, do the math yourself, but it's rarely the best option.
This is all in relation to active tracking - passive tracking is an idea that fascinates me, but it is probably a dead end. There was a guy in Qld. AU that used to make some of these back in the 70s or possibly the 80s, I have seen one working although not up close, and I cant seem to find anything on the web about them. As I understand it, the panel is mounted on a free swivel, then held in place from opposite sides with heavy black rubber straps that partially wrap around the swivel, so the one on the east actually pulls the panel towards the west, and the one on the west actually pulls to the east. In the morning, the band on the east side warms up faster than the one on the west, causing the panel to rotate towards the east. As the sun progresses, the bands even out, then later in the day, the western band is warmer than the eastern, causing the panel to continue rotating to the west for the evening.
Beautiful scheme in theory, far fewer things to break (and no draining your electric output to move the panel) but even so he was apparently never able to make it cheap and reliable enough to take off.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?