wrote in :

Jim Yanik writes:

wrote in :

Jim Yanik writes:

wrote in :

harry writes:

On Jul 20, 12:23ÀšÃ‚Â*am, jamesgangnc
wrote:
On Jul 19, 7:02ÀšÃ‚Â*pm, Frank
wrote: All power plants have
maintenance costs.

PV?

Pretty low maintenance costs.

solar uses a lot of water,gotta keep the panels clean.

Just watched a video.
Every 2 weeks:
Wipe off dust with dry towel.

That video isn't telling you everything.
wiping without water means scratches that lower output.
It also doesn't remove bird crap or tree sap.

Dust lightly with soft towel.

Wash with towel dampened in water, vinegar, detergent.

That doesn't sound like a lot of water.

for all those panels?
it has to be done more often than every two weeks,too.

Yes, all those panels.
The video said every 2 weeks.
How much dirt is in the air where you live?
In places with no rain, just dusting will do the job.
Downwind of a coal plant, maybe more than every 2 weeks.
I still see no evidence that more often than 2 weeks is required.

So I still don't see a lot of water being used.

"you don't see";
there's the problem.

BTW,how often do you need to wash a car that's left outside? Or just run
your windshield wasers? If I leave my car outside for 2 weeks,no rain,it's
COVERED in dirt,along with tree sap and bird crap.
You can write your name in the dirt,and pranksters often do.

that lowers solar panel output significantly.


then there's inverter maintenance,and if storage
batteries used,battery maintenance. Plus,the hazards of battery
chemicals and lead,along with fire hazard.

Just looked up maintenance procedure for a solar panel
inverter.

"replace every 10 years".

what about dust,power surges,electrolytic capacitor dryout,etc?
Cap failure is a common occurrence in power systems.

Yeah, what about them. They're also subject to random meteorite hits.
Anything can go wrong. Still the cost of maintenance remains replace
every 10 years unless you have some other source to cite.

BTW,I note that the system you cited uses TRACKING solar panels,so
there's maintenance on the mechanicals that move the panels.Then
there's snow/ice removal,seeing as it's up North(N.Jersey?).

The system at Bell Labs is not tracking.

read the article again. that is where I got it from.

They could remove snow if they want, or just wait until it slides off.
We get snowfall in Central NJ but it's not going to stick to a slick
glass panel for long.

Denial.
besides,the fact that your panels ARE covered by snow means you get ZERO
output from them,for some length of time.
So,that power has to come from some other,more reliable source.

Anyway, it mostly just sits there and pours electricity into the
grid. Pretty cool, especially with this heat, you can imagine
all the air conditioners it's running.

"POURS" electricity? how big a plant is it? how many MW?

1.2MW:

http://newprovidence.patch.com/artic...-system-to-pow
er -bell-labs-campus-3 http://tinyurl.com/3srexrm

It probably runs THEIR AC and maybe the building lights.

The building is pretty big. The article says it's enough power to
power 200 homes.

Is that peak or average output?

Read the article or do more research.

Likely peak output.

I don't get it. Are you against power generation or does it just
feel good to point out that someone has to push the snow off the
panel.

MY point is that it's a "feel good" action,not truly practical.
With a lot of money spent,and probably with Federal tax credits,or as the
"progressives" call them;"loopholes" to be plugged.
And you end up with an intermittent power source,not reliable,won't output
it's rated power consistently or at night.And 20 years later,you have to
buy all new panels,sooner if there's a hailstorm.

Sure there are problems, I'm well aware of all the issues, I've heard
it all before. I still see an open field that wasn't doing anything
but growing grass, still growing grass but now also pushing some power
into the grid. It's going to take a lot of fancy BS to convince me
this is a bad thing.


Wait until that grass grows high enough.
It appears from the picture included in that article that mowing would be a
problem.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com