West vs. South.....

[Alisobob]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/upshot/why-more-solar-panels-should-be-pointing-west-not-south.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0

http://www.energy.ca.gov/releases/2014_releases/2014-09-03_nshp_incentive_nr.html

http://blog.opower.com/2014/12/solar-homes-utilities-love/

Things to think about....


Thoughts?

[J.P.M.]

We kicked this around some months ago.

As I recall, some consensus, by no means universal, was that:

- Southerly facing arrays will generally gather more energy than other orientations in a majority of applications.

- Users with T.O.U. rates MAY see some financial benefit to more westerly facing array orientations, but tough to call and harder to make general statements about due to variations in weather patterns, different POCO T.O.U. time schedules, user patterns, and other things.

- Some posters tagged the west facing scheme as POCO inspired to help them (the POCO) with load balancing at the expense of users who believe everything they see/read, particularly on the net.

If I recall correctly, that additional CA incentive mentioned in one reference applies to new construction and is separate from the now expired typical CSI residential rebate program.

[sensij]

Another interesting paper that discusses some of the economics of panel orientation is here, produced by a group at UCSD. The pricing model they use is more applicable to commercial / utility scale economics, but since that is what ultimately drives residential pricing, there may be some value in understanding it.

[russ]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/up...abt=0002&abg=0

http://www.energy.ca.gov/releases/2014_releases/2014-09-03_nshp_incentive_nr.html

http://blog.opower.com/2014/12/solar-homes-utilities-love/

Things to think about....


Thoughts?

1) The NY Times article is a bit of fluff by a reporter that got the requirement for a solar article dumped on him.

2) & 3) The window for best solar performance says that for a fixed array the optimum orientation is south. Mornings and afternoons get less sun and are often more subject to piss poor weather conditions.

[Ian S]

- Users with T.O.U. rates MAY see some financial benefit to more westerly facing array orientations, but tough to call and harder to make general statements about due to variations in weather patterns, different POCO T.O.U. time schedules, user patterns, and other things.

- Some posters tagged the west facing scheme as POCO inspired to help them (the POCO) with load balancing at the expense of users who believe everything they see/read, particularly on the net.

Actually, SRP by proposing a TOU demand fee is quite explicit about this:

Or they can point their solar panels west, toward the setting sun, when summer afternoons draw the highest demand from air- conditioners. By coordinating their energy production with peak demand, they also can limit monthly demand charges, he said.

This is going to provide incentive for affordable residential storage to lower the demand charge for solar customers. However, it will be far harder to justify solar with an additional $50/month utility charges so it may all be moot.