Solar energy course presented to APEGBC Seminar Series on Nov 9, 2016 at the Marriot Pinnacle Hotel in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The seminar outline is here..
Solar Energy in BC
The seminar covered all key aspects of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects with a focus to BC,Canada. In short, a PV system transforms solar irradiance into electricity that can be either sold to the grid or consumed locally. Solar is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Today, the US employs more people in solar than in coal and gas. In the world, the rate of PV installations exceeds one ‘Site C dam’ per week. This course offers the fundamentals of PV solar with the objective to understand how to implement a successful solar project in BC.
The presentation below is mainly graphical and will be best understood by those who attended the seminar. We will include more text shortly.
To advance the slides, press space bar.
CHAPTER 1:
BASICS, SOLAR IN THE WORLD, CURRENT PRICES, SOLAR IN CANADA
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This presentation is divided into chapters that follow the energy flow:
Sun irradiance on the PV.
PV transforming the light into DC current
Inverters transforming DC into AC and controlling the system electric parameters.
End-use as load displacement or feed to the grid.
Financial return from saving on utility bills or sale to the grid.
Energy and power are two different physics properties that are often confused.
Energy is the practical property that can provide a useful service such as work, movement, heat, light, etc,..
Power is only the capacity to process energy.
Generators such as coal-fired power plant have different capacity factors. The lowest one being solar with 20% or less. Does it mean that solar is not cost efficient?
It all depends on the cost of installed power.
For example, the new Site C dam currently under construction in the Peace River region will cost about 9 B Can$ for 1,100 MW installed or C$8.2/W. A large scale solar plant costs less than C$2/W installed.
Site C has a capacity factor of 43% (according to BC Hydro) while the capacity factor of a solar plant is 20%.
The solar plant produces 2x less but costs 4x less than Site C and is thus more economical.
Solar PV is increasing incorporated in building envelops to become roofs and facades.
BIPV (Building Integrated PV) help reduce the cost of solar energy and building envelop by combining them into a single element.
It is the future in construction – already present in visionary architecture.
The price of PV has decreased dramatically over the past years.
PV modules that were around 60¢/Wp in 2015 may cost as low as 35¢ in mid-2016. (According to the Deutsche bank)
Inverters have followed the same trend, as shown on the next slides.
NREL estimated solar system installed cost in three categories: Residential commercial, industrial.
While the cost of technologies (PV, inverters, etc,…) has reached a point where future reduction will have a minimal impact on total system cost.
The best saving opportunities is now in soft cost.
Soft cost is also responsible for the large difference between residential and industrial costs.
Solar can be very competitive versus other technologies as shown in the results of a recent bid in Chile.
CHAPTER 2
SUN IRRADIANCE, PROBABILITIES, POSITION
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CHAPTER 3
MOUNTING, TRACKERS
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CHAPTER 4
PV MODULES, INVERTERS, LOSSES
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CHAPTER 5
ESTIMATORS, SOFT BOS, MAINTENANCE
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CHAPTER 6
EPA, SUNMINE, FINANCIALS
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Presenter
Michel de Spot
Michel de Spot, P.Eng.
Michel is the co-founder, current president and CEO of the EcoSmart Foundation.
He is a past-president of the Sustainability Committee of the Association of Professional Engineers of BC, a LEED accredited professional, a member of DEERE executive committee and the co-chair of the Clean Energy BC (CEBC) solar committee.
Michel has extensive experience in solar energy and was the main driver behind ‘SunMine’, the first large-scale solar PV plant in BC.
SunMine won numerous awards including APEGBC’s Sustainability Award and the prestigious ‘Engineers Canada Award for outstanding Engineering project.’
About EcoSmart
EcoSmart is dedicated to the development of solar energy. We have been actively involved in this field since 2008. SunMine, , the first large solar plant developed in BC, Canada, is the result of our efforts. We support the launch and development of new solar projects from concept to implementation. We have broad experience in all phases of solar initiatives. We work with all stakeholders in all phases of solar projects and provide independent, high quality solar resource information, preliminary studies and engineering, energy yield assessment, simulations, financial analysis, grant applications, and more.
