On Nov 24, 10:34*am, Martin Brown
wrote:
On 24/11/2011 07:47, Tim wrote:

This story caught my eye this morning.

http://m.stv.tv/news/scotland/east-c...ge-plans-to-en...

A college plans to spend £300,000 on a solar array *generating 1076 KW and
are expecting to save £150,000 a year on electricity bills. The surplus
will be used locally and there is no mention of any FIT.

Can this possibly work or has someone got their sums very wrong?

Tim

Given that they cannot even get their units of energy right what do you
think?

Reputable solar arrays are now of the order of £2/W at best so spending
£300k will give them a 150kW peak PV array (ignoring control electronics
and installation for the moment). In a 12h day of continuous unbroken
sunshine that would deliver at most 1200kWhr per day and in midwinter
they will be lucky to get 60kWhr/day on average. It would have to track
the sun to do any better (which is unlikely).

Remind me how long the sunny winter days are in Edinburgh at 56N.

You could probably get the PV array price down another factor of 2 or so
by buying in bulk from Chinese companies no-one has ever heard of if you
don't mind taking a chance on ending up with nothing at all or dodgy
units that work briefly then leak and corrode in our climate.

Regards,
Martin Brown

Nobody knows how low the price of a solar panel could fall. I bet the
Chinese knock them out for a tenner for the big ones.
The competition is just coming on right now.
Someone told me a 42" plasma TV costs £20 to actually make.