feed in tariff is working

Not in Utah. You get credits up to a limit. Beyond that - Rocky Mountain Power cordially thanks you for the free energy they re-sell and make even more profit on. As for your credits, you overproduce during the day and pull from the credits during the night. You're not going to get more than enough credits to run your household for two days straight off the grid. If the sun doesn't shine, your wallet takes the hit.

 

I own a snow rake and while it is more gentle than a steel garden rake I would not be willing to use it on an expensive and breakable solar array. The cost of damage is too high to take that sort of risk. Control of a plastic and metal assembly at the end of a 20 foot pole is not that good, certainly not for glass windows or glass covered solar cells.

 

I own a snow rake and while it is more gentle than a steel garden rake I would not be willing to use it on an expensive and breakable solar array. The cost of damage is too high to take that sort of risk. Control of a plastic and metal assembly at the end of a 20 foot pole is not that good, certainly not for glass windows or glass covered solar cells.

That's why you use a 'Solar Panel' snow rake designed for 'Solar Panels' as I said in my first 'removal' post of this thread. "solar panel rake"

 

Spoken by a person who doesn't seem to know about snow rakes.

Push brooms are for ground mounts and rakes are for roofs. The panels have taken some good hail hits without a problem, don't think a soft bristle broom will hurt.

Hi,

And to think i dont even like having to clean my car off after a big snow
Come to think of it, even after a little snow

 

Have you ever seen how two motorized rollers with cellophane or plastic, can keep race car camera lens clean?

Edit: I believe they call them a motorized roll off.....or a mud muncher.

 

This thread prompted me to look up "U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System CostBenchmark: Q1 2018":
https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy19osti/72399.pdf

and it's interesting that the cliff has an interesting bump within the US:
View attachment 167030

It's almost like something happened in January 2017. I wonder what it was.

 

I recall a Monday, January 14, quite a few years back, 12 inches of snow in 8 hours and the roads were not in good shape. And because of the nature of that particular snowfall, it packed densely. probably all of the photo-electric arrays were well blanketed.

 

I recall a Monday, January 14, quite a few years back, 12 inches of snow in 8 hours and the roads were not in good shape. And because of the nature of that particular snowfall, it packed densely. probably all of the photo-electric arrays were well blanketed.

Hi,

That's what i was afraid of too. We have a very high roof over here and lots of houses in this area are the same. Dont know how anyone would get the snow off of a high roof without a ladder or something and that would be dangerous with snow and ice also on the ground.
I dont see any panels on any roofs around here.
Maybe they just figure that it's moot while there is snow, then good to go when it melts off naturally.

 

This is supposedly a $30M solar installation in Minnesota as it looks today.

 

This is supposedly a $30M solar installation in Minnesota as it looks today.

That's the way my driveway looks, so I believe it.

It seems to me those panels should be more sharply pitched. Minneapolis is 45° and that would be the right setting if there is no ability to adjust and there are no other factors. Seems to me a bias of +5-10° would make a big difference in the panels staying cleaner and clear of snow, with a minimal impact on efficiency.

 

That's the way my driveway looks, so I believe it.

It seems to me those panels should be more sharply pitched. Minneapolis is 45° and that would be the right setting if there is no ability to adjust and there are no other factors. Seems to me a bias of +5-10° would make a big difference in the panels staying cleaner and clear of snow, with a minimal impact on efficiency.

That was seriously funny.
Ron

 

That was seriously funny.
Ron

I understand that there is MUCH LESS SNOW in southern Arizona. Probably solar panels would make a lot more sense there. For the Minneapolis area I think that hydroelectric power makes more sense, I seem to recall a power station on the river near down town. Fortunately "old man river" just keeps flowing, so the generators just keep turning. Didn't anybody on the solar cell committee notice the number of cloudy days?? A lot more of them than are seen in Phoenix.

 

I understand that there is MUCH LESS SNOW in southern Arizona. Probably solar panels would make a lot more sense there. For the Minneapolis area I think that hydroelectric power makes more sense, I seem to recall a power station on the river near down town. Fortunately "old man river" just keeps flowing, so the generators just keep turning. Didn't anybody on the solar cell committee notice the number of cloudy days?? A lot more of them than are seen in Phoenix.

Wife's cousin lives in the Phoenix, AZ area and solar is popular. I am in the NE, Ohio area and not so much, looks about like the picture. Wind turbines seem to be more popular up this way. They have been kicking around a plan to place a bunch of them offshore in Lake Erie. The challenges are a lake which freezes over. Lake Erie is relatively shallow, matter of fact the shallowest of the Great Lakes. Sitting off the coast of Cleveland, about 10 miles out, about 60 feet of water. So they need to bore down in the lake bed to anchor the things and back to a lake that freezes over. About now I wish the hell I was in Arizona!

Ron

 

OK, Ron. I once stopped and we tried to hear a wind turbine making whatever noise it is claimed that they make. None of us heard anything, although it was on a quiet country road, the only noise being some cows grazing a hundred yards away. The turbine was spinning about the speed they normally spin. So I still have no clue as to what the noise is. Have you ever heard the noise that they make? Has anybody reading this thread ever heard the noise? Could they please describe it if they have.

 

https://eng.mst.dk/air-noise-waste/noise/wind-turbines/low-frequency-noise-from-wind-turbines/
Max.

 

https://eng.mst.dk/air-noise-waste/noise/wind-turbines/low-frequency-noise-from-wind-turbines/
Max.

OK, Max, I followed the link. My point being that we were as close as we could get without trespassing and heard nothing at all, in an otherwise silent area. Nor could I feel any subsonic rumblings of any kind. I still want to be able to get right next to one and find out what can be heard.

 

OK, Ron. I once stopped and we tried to hear a wind turbine making whatever noise it is claimed that they make. None of us heard anything, although it was on a quiet country road, the only noise being some cows grazing a hundred yards away. The turbine was spinning about the speed they normally spin. So I still have no clue as to what the noise is. Have you ever heard the noise that they make? Has anybody reading this thread ever heard the noise? Could they please describe it if they have.

Just before I retired I watched this mammoth 2.5 MW unit go in piece by piece. Lincoln Electric just about bordered our property line at the plant. Day by day, section by section this monster went together. The final cost was $6,000,000 and Lincoln said they would not have built it (cost feasibility return on investment) had the US Government paid 25% (1.5 Million) of the cost. This thing is enormous to say the least. Blade tip speed is 165 mph at a hub rotation of 14.1 rpm. Close as I was to that thing I never heard anything but then too, my hearing isn't what it once was but I don't recall anyone else commenting on any sound from it.

Here are a few U-Tube videos.

In the second video I was in the facility behind Lincoln Electric.Have to admit when this began we were like what the hell are they doing? Then word got out so we watched every day as it was constructed. Lincoln also had an interest as to how the column sections were welded as they were looking for pieces of future pies.

Ron

 

Wow, and thanks for the video, Ron. Seeing the baseball diamond below gives reference to just how big it rally is. And no noise to be heard? That certainly brings to question all of those noise complaints. Of course some designs are probably much quieter than others.
I still have not heard why they have to put the gearbox and alternator up there, when they could just have a large hydraulic pump and us a variable displacement hydraulic motor on the ground to spin the alternator. Much less stuff to work on up above, and no need for high power slip rings. And hydraulic pump technology is a very mature field, so no breakthroughs needed.

 

They can install a wind turbine in my back yard anytime they like as long as I get free power for life!

 

Wow, and thanks for the video, Ron. Seeing the baseball diamond below gives reference to just how big it rally is. And no noise to be heard? That certainly brings to question all of those noise complaints. Of course some designs are probably much quieter than others.
I still have not heard why they have to put the gearbox and alternator up there, when they could just have a large hydraulic pump and us a variable displacement hydraulic motor on the ground to spin the alternator. Much less stuff to work on up above, and no need for high power slip rings. And hydraulic pump technology is a very mature field, so no breakthroughs needed.

Somewhere in all the reading I think they run DC down the tower. Figure that thing is 2.5 MW so there has to be some serious buss work involved. I know it goes to a 3 phase inverter which feeds their 4160 VAC bus.

The max speed is slow at what did I mention? Yeah, 14.1 RPM so the gear train has to be interesting. Designed and built by the German outfit. When it arrived the joke was that one large box has a bunch of German guys in it. They popped out and put it together. Close as I was I never even heard a slight whooshing sound. It just stands there and those massive blades slowly turn. It was finished when I retired so it's been there going on six years or a little more. Maybe faster turning ones make noise? Beats the hell outta me.

Ron