systems

The Hopkinsville City Council is moving forward with an ordinance to amend its zoning code to include Solar Energy Systems (SES) after hearing public comments about solar panels and the feasibility of solar farms in Christian County.

Peter Schlicker, an attorney representing BrightNight Power in Louisville, opened the discussion at Tuesday night’s meeting, saying the proposed amendment before the city council provides a 1,000- to 2,000-square-foot shortfall for larger solar installations. However, he believes the applicable standard is too restrictive and would prohibit large-scale solar farms and economic benefits.

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click to download audio Dan Brechwald also spoke against the proposed amendment.

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click to download audio Former city councilor and Pembroke Road property owner Marby Schlegel is also not in favor of the amendment and believes the setback should be negotiated.

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click to download audio Local farmer Brandon Garnett of Edwards Mill Road talked about the economic impact of agriculture in Christian County, where he says it is statistically the No. 1 agricultural county in Kentucky. He said we need farmland for future generations, not solar farms.

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Click to download audio When Phillip Garnett, of Bradshaw Road, addressed the council, he reiterated that they were not against solar power – it was about farmland.

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click to download audio. He noted that they want regulations to prevent solar companies from taking over the county’s farmland.

And Heather Cook of Dogwood Community spoke in favor of the ordinance, saying she and her family are actively fighting the solar farm that “invades” her community. He noted that the area where he currently lives will suffer the most because the solar panels will cover his house.

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click to download audio Community and Development Services Executive Director Tom Britton introduced the proposed amendment, saying it creates fairer guidelines for solar companies.

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Click to download audio After more than an hour of questions and discussions, the council unanimously voted to prepare the decision for consideration at the next meeting of the city council.

Australia is the largest adopter of solar energy globally, with around 30% of homes with rooftop solar PV. By 31 January 2022, more than 3 million rooftop solar PV systems were installed in Australia. A home solar PV system costs around $3,500 for a basic installation. As demand and mass production increase, prices keep falling. (Source: Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water – energy.gov.au)

Technology and the market are developing rapidly. Solar PV systems are substantial and are designed to be long-term investments that, once paid for, will save the owner money by providing free electricity during the day. A solar panel can be positioned to face the sun for most of the day, but it will only produce energy based on how long the day is for that area and time of year. Solar users estimate their daily solar energy supply using “equivalent peak solar hours”. Visit this page to learn tips and choose the best solar panel.

The placement of solar panels is as important as the type of solar panel used in a given setting. The general rule of thumb for positioning solar panels in the southern hemisphere is to face true north (and true south in the northern hemisphere). When talking about true south, remember that true south is geographic, not magnetic. In other words, instead of using compass directions, you should orient your solar power system based on longitude lines on a map.

Solar panel mapping tools or software can help you maximize your solar potential.

National map

National Map is an online map-based tool with a fully open design that provides quick access to Australian government geographic information. Geoscience Australia (GA) is partnering with CSIRO’s Data61 to manage the National Map to organize the data and develop software.

provides easy access to authoritative and other spatial data to government, businesses and the public facilitates data openness by federal, state and local government authorities provides an open geographic data services framework that supports commercial and community innovation Source: CSIRO’s Data61

Australian PV Institute (APVI) solar mapping tools

An interactive national map and chart showing real-time performance data for solar PV installations in Australia is available on the APVI website.

Live solar PV map or APVI solar PV maps and tools track the adoption and impact of solar PV in Australia to inform research and investment decisions.

Map included

Market data on how much PV is installed in Australia, including estimated electricity produced each year and in which locations (defined by postcode), and trend history and live performance data covering all major Australian climate regions, contributing to Australia’s load by region electricity market information.

This program has increased awareness, confidence and knowledge about PV performance and capacity. It gives users access to data that can be used to conduct sophisticated research on solar markets, performance, reliability and integration with energy markets and networks.

The data can also be used to better understand elements that improve the efficiency, reliability and quality of PV electricity.

The Australian PV Institute is a not-for-profit, member-based, collaborative research and data analysis organisation. It provides reliable and factual information to support the growth and adoption of solar photovoltaics and related technologies.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) funded the project.

Difference between location and geographic data

Geospatial data is time-based information that describes objects, events, or other features associated with a specific location on the earth’s surface.

The shape and location of components and boundaries, such as geographic features, structures, survey markers, land parcels, street addresses, local government and administrative boundary areas, are described with spatial data.

Large spatial datasets are often collected from multiple sources in different forms to create geospatial data, which can include data from a variety of sources, such as social media, satellite images, weather, mobile phone data, and census data. The most useful use of geospatial data is to find, share, evaluate and combine it with traditional business data.

Types of solar PV systems

A solar PV or photovoltaic system means electricity as the movement of an electron. When sunlight hits the solar cells, it causes the electrons to be released from their position, leaving a gap where another electron can drop in and interact with it. This phenomenon is called Photovoltaic effect or solar PV. Photovoltaic It is called PV. Solar PV systems can

How to design a solar PV system?

The sun shines on solar panels that generate direct current (DC) electricity. DC electricity is fed to a solar inverter which converts it to 240V 50Hz AC electricity. 240V AC electricity is used to power the appliances in your home. Electricity is now available. return to the main network.

A solar inverter converts the DC electricity produced by the solar panels into 240V AC electricity, which can then be used by the property/household, exported to the grid or stored in a solar battery storage system.

The main advantage of a larger solar PV system is that it will be simple to add a solar panel, get the most out of your solar inverter and generate more power during the day so you don’t have to depend on it. network electricity. You can start getting the most out of your solar PV system by installing a solar panel like the Tesla Powerwall 2 .

Installation of solar panels

The cost of installing a solar system can vary widely and is affected by a variety of factors, including your location, the retailer or solar installer you choose, solar rebates and incentives offered, and the size and technology of your system’s solar panels. Visit this page to determine if you should install solar panels on your investment property.

Here are some important steps to consider:

Get multiple solar quotes to find the best solar retailer for your needs. Find out what federal and state government rebates and incentives are available. Determine the most effective solar power system and solar panel size for your needs and budget. certified as genuine, meets Australian Standards and has a warranty you can trust

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – More and more New Mexicans are heading for the sun. It’s good for the environment and maybe even better for your electric bill.

But it’s an investment, systems alone can cost you tens of thousands of dollars.

One local family said it was a meaningful investment for them until the solar power plant shut down and the company stopped returning calls.

“When we first moved in, our electric bill here was running between $400 and $550 a month,” said Paul Ortiz y Pino, a homeowner in Rio Rancho.

For Paul Ortiz y Pino and his daughter Jessica, going solar was really about saving on their electric bill.

“They told us this is the way to go, you know, ‘we can get your bill down to next to nothing.’ We immediately stood up and said yes, we want to do this,” Ortiz y Pino said.

In 2019, his family took the opportunity to go with Titan Solar Power. Their Rio Rancho home had 34 panels installed on the roof, a $35,000 investment paid off with a 12-year loan that made sense with the savings they would receive in return.

“We got our electricity bill, I said how much is it?” ‘$8’ he said, $8? This is crazy,” said Ortiz y Pino.

What could possibly go wrong with a 30 year warranty?

“I didn’t know until I got the bill from PNM and called PNM,” Jessica Ortiz y Pino said.

Their panels stopped recording production with PNM in November 2021. After using up all the energy they had built up over the years, they saw their PNM bill increase again nine months later.

Jessica called Titan.

“He said, ‘I’m going to speed it up and have someone contact you today,’ and I said, ‘Yes, please,'” Jessica said.

Eight weeks have passed since that phone call and she still hasn’t heard from anyone. It should have been eight weeks of money-making sunshine.

All this due to the rise in his electricity bill and the loan for the panels which require urgent payment.

“Brittany, to be honest, I’m the one who comes to buy everything. Obviously, this is not a company that I can trust, obviously not a business that I just started opening and that I can trust,” said Jessica Ortiz y Pino.

He found this out when he started looking for the company on the Internet.

Jessica discovered a Better Business Bureau profile with a rating of less than two stars. The page contains an active alert alerting customers to a sample of complaints about service issues.

A Pacific Southwest BBB spokeswoman said Titan Solar “is cooperating with the BBB to improve and mitigate future complaints and is responding to all complaints made.”

Currently, the business does not have a rating. According to a spokesperson, there are several possible reasons for this rating: “for reasons including insufficient information about a business or ongoing review/updating of a business file.”

It took us a few calls and a stop at a local store to track someone down. We asked Titan Solar Power for an on-camera interview.

A spokeswoman agreed to a zoom interview but did not want to be identified.

After calling Titan reps, they sent a tech out and said the system was back online for Ortiz y Pinos. Titan has improved its cell kit and said they are trying to make up for lost production.

A spokesperson blamed the slide on staffing shortages and said they were currently working to resolve the issue.

But we found nine other formal complaints against Titan Solar filed with the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office in 2022, some involving similar issues. Many of these complaints were helped to resolve by the AG’s office.

A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office said in part:

“Our office has resolved the majority of complaints filed against Titan Solar through advocacy and our Intervention Division’s informal dispute resolution process, resulting in thousands of dollars in consumer refunds. Resolutions include paying for undelivered products, compensating consumers for downtime of solar panels, repaying consumer loans, and improving customer service and response time.

We continue to investigate and review the remaining open complaints in an attempt to provide a final resolution to those consumers.”

The Attorney General’s Office also has some advice for every consumer entering into a contract:

“Make sure you understand your rights before entering into these contracts.

Review the terms of the contract and what financial obligations you are signing. Make sure your seller’s verbal promises to you match what’s in the contract.

If you believe there is a problem with your contract, please contact our office. We also recommend that you seek the advice of a personal attorney. “

KOB 4 asked a Titan Solar Power spokesperson about other complaints and ongoing concerns. A spokesperson acknowledged this and said they are hiring new staff to specifically address customer service to SMEs.

This extra help is needed because the demand for solar power and conservation in New Mexico is not going anywhere.

“From 2018 to now, more than 420,000 solar panels have been installed by our PNM business and residential customers, representing a 64% increase in customer-owned solar power generation in less than five years,” said Kelly-Renae Huber, PNM spokesperson.

Ortiz y Pinos hopes that with the decrease in sunlight and the approach of winter, the problem has indeed been solved.

There are several ways to track your solar production before you receive your bill.

Many companies now use monitoring software for your phone, be sure to ask about it.

PNM said another option is to read the meter, if those numbers go up, it means energy is coming on.

For Related Stories: Brittany Costello

New research has proposed a cost-effective way to recycle solar panels to help manage the growing volume of retired photovoltaic (PV) cells expected by the end of the decade.

In a paper published last week by a team from the University of New South Wales, researchers determined whether the process of collecting and extracting valuable materials from solar arrays is technically, economically and environmentally feasible.

The process involves collecting the solar arrays, stripping their aluminum frame, breaking down the cells and reducing the panels to 2%-3% of their original weight using electrostatic separation to collect valuable materials including silver and copper.

The recovered material will be sent directly to the refinery for treatment and processing.

Dr Pablo Dias, lead author of the study, said it showed it was possible to operate a small-scale facility capable of handling 1,000 tons of solar panels per year. This equates to about 50,000 panels per year, or about 4,100 panels per month.

“It’s something that someone can pick up somewhere else, it doesn’t use any chemicals, it doesn’t emit any pollution or dangerous pollution. It creates dust by crushing the panels, but you have dust collectors in there,” Dias said.

Australia currently has very little capacity to process and recycle solar panels at the end of their useful lives. This is seen as an increasingly pressing issue as the high adoption of rooftop solar and proposals for large-scale solar farms mean that an increasing number of panels are reaching the end of their life.

A 2016 report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) found that large-scale and early adopters of solar PV can expect the largest volumes of waste from older systems.

Australia was predicted to produce 145,000 tonnes of PV solar waste per year by 2030, compared to 1 million tonnes per year in the US and 1.5 million tonnes in China.

Dias said small-scale facilities are important because they can process material closer to the source before shipping it, reducing emissions from transportation.

“You can do it in a South Australian suburb, concentrate the valuable material and then ship it directly to the refiners who extract and refine the metals,” he said.

He also moved to apply the research through startup Solarcycle, which is building a facility in the US state of Texas. It is expected to be launched in November.

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Professor Peter Majewski of the University of South Australia’s Future Industries Institute, who was not involved in the research, said it “absolutely makes sense” but cautioned against a one-size-fits-all approach.

“We need to develop a strong recycling technology and industry in this space because we’re going to have a lot of solar panels,” Majewski said.

“It’s worth looking at all the different scenarios at the moment – we need to develop different ways of recycling.”

Majewski said that while there is a need to think about how to dispose of end-of-life solar panels, it is a “solvable problem” that can be solved with a management scheme that clarifies who is responsible and how to dispose of them.

“Solar panels and wind emissions are often highlighted as this issue, which is not the case in other discussions,” Majewski said. “Many technologies produce waste. We can manage. It is a matter of legislation and technology.”

ASHLAND, Ore. — A local winery went solar in early September.

Purelight Power installed more than 500 solar panels on the roof of the winery.

“People don’t always realize it, but grapes and wines use the sun’s energy to grow and develop,” said Edwin Kerwin, owner and founder of Belle Fiore.

The company produces more than 250 kilowatts of energy for its wineries and tasting room.

It’s also a great way to help the wine’s overall flavor, Kerwin says.

“We remove the leaves from the base of the grape vines to allow the sun to hit the grapes, which promotes ripening and optical wine characteristics.”

Each panel helps to create the desired amount of solar radiation from each solar panel.

“About 20 percent of our panels are on the south-facing roof,” Kerwin said. “And about 65 percent of our panels face west.”

The installation of these panels also reduced the company’s overall energy costs.

“Not only is it a great way to beautify our winery and take advantage of the sun that bounces off our rooftops,” Kerwin said. “But it’s a smart business investment that will help reduce our energy costs.”

Belle Fiore is also the first winery to plant vineyards in 2007.