What is a reasonable price for enough solar panels to power a large number of condos and other buildings? I'm doing a school project and we need ways to be green. I have the power of a retirement community in Florida. I have 15 large condos, beach houses three, 3 restaurnats, pool, gym, spa, sauna, grocery store, gas station, and several offices. They have no power at all but I want to be as environmentally friendly as possible. So maybe other suggestions on good ways to go green.
I watched this in a diversified approach.
1. be it in Florida, I start by using PV on homes in combination with a small peak torque mounted wind turbines (oynot.com sources solardyne.com, sunwize.com and so on).
Two. condos are different. They usually have flat roofs where the turbines would be beyond question and would therefore PV. Instead I would use solar panels to drive assembly, and try to be energy efficient in other areas of the building.
3. the pool is easy. your in Florida, unless you want to cool it in summer and warm in winter, so just run water through a capacitor in a loop solar water heater. and answers the same for the rest.
But the best is SNA think before building, built with the environment, and plan accordingly by being rational construction.
Firstly, it is impossible to properly power them with solar panels unless you plan not to have the power to late afternoon to after sunrise. Also no power on rainy days (rains a lot in Florida)
A decent panel will cost $ 300 - $ 400. It will be about 7-10 ft2 (sq ft) area. It will produce enough energy for one or two bulbs (50-80 watts). You can get panels higher power (150-250 watts), but they will be $ 800 - $ 900 each.
Get the picture? Very expensive. Very unreliable. Takes a wide area to produce much power, which is a big impact on the environment.
Atypical house facility will cost $ 20,000 - $ 80,000 depending on what level of performance you want and you will be totally independent of the power company.
All calculations are available on many sites on the net.
With net metering is possible to 100% of your energy needs. The cost in advance will be high, but long term it will be free. So if you need $ 500k of solar panels and it will take 30 years of current energy consumption to repay the cost after it's free. And we all like free.
Use less, consume less, consume less. Every dollar you save in your use save five in the cost of production.
Install a community adsorption chiller using solar thermal solar heating and cooling the buildings.
http://www.appalachianenergy.com/commerc ...
Posted on October 4, 2010.
