Esopus solar array makes enough electricity to make town energy independent

[hrmjustin]

By William J. Kemble

ESOPUS >> Town Board members on have approved a memorandum of agreement with Central Hudson on terms that will let a planned 1 megawatt solar array put enough electricity into the grid to make the municipality energy independent.

The agreement was discussed during a meeting Monday, when Supervisor John Coutant said the documents described the accounts that would be credited when generating electricity from the transfer station on Floyd Ackert Road.

“This is used to put the calculations together for the last round of communications with (installation contractors) Sun Edison of California,” he said. “Next will be coming the contracts for us to review and take to the attorney about the actual installation project itself, which I expect to happen in the next couple or three weeks.”

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/general-news/20140804/esopus-solar-array-makes-enough-electricity-to-make-town-energy-independent

[NYC_SKP]

1. Point of clarification: 1 MW is not a whole lot of power, this will not make the town independent.

(Still, I love that they have the vision to do this.)

This will make the municipal buildings and services energy independent or, more accurately, they'll generate as much power as they consume but not be independent of the utility provider, which will be needed at night time and on cloudier days.

The ~10,000 residents and businesses, etc., are not part of this project.

I know this from experience, and I put together a similar project half the size that offset a single multistory building (500 kW on two acres).

K/R

[hrmjustin]

2. I am not familiar with the measurements but I agree it is a start.

I hope ut catches fire accrosx the country.

[NYC_SKP]

4. My second thought was that this could be a model for small communities everywhere.

And, indeed, it's catching on.

Wonderful that the incentives to build over former landfills, and others, exist.

Also great that the cost per watt for modules is dropping.

We still need for PUCs to work with electric utility providers to create mutually beneficial arrangements to improve safety and reliability and all the environmental and cost benefits will follow!

[hrmjustin]

7. Is this common out west?

[NYC_SKP]

11. It's growing rapidly, but not by communities or municipalities.

We are seeing a lot of schools and some businesses and municipalities adopt it.

One of the hitches is that for grid-tied systems, the infrastructure doesn't always have the capacity to take in excess generation.

And we have the PUC, ISO, EPA and IOUs and other utilities having to find consensus.

Public Utilities Commission, Independent System Operator, Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality Management Districts, Investor Owned Utilities....

[hrmjustin]

12. I also know wind energy is big out in the mountains of southern California.

[NYC_SKP]

13. True. Though big wind is usually utility-scale, still awesome.

And, while solar production nicely matches the demand curve, wind tends to be stronger at night.

I check out our status almost every day. http://www.caiso.com/outlook/SystemStatus.html

Below, Real Time Demand and Production, with Forecast Demand graphs, 24 hour period.



And here, Real Time Renwables Production. Solar in orange, wind in blue:

[hrmjustin]

14. Yes I imagine the desert is very windy at night.

I also remember that it was beautiful to watch the windmills going on the mountains.

[PoliticAverse]

3. when the sun is shining, perhaps. n/t

[hrmjustin]

5. It helps.

[NYC_SKP]

6. Production is calculated on an total annual kWh demand basis, plus a little for inverter loss.

The local utility credits the system for overproduction on sunny days and weekends when the system is likely pushing electrons INTO the grid, and then the credits apply in the evenings and sunny days.

Hope that helps.

[hrmjustin]

8. Does it store energy for cloudy days and nights?

[NYC_SKP]

9. Typically, the grid acts as the storage system.

Very few large installations have battery or other storage technologies and have "net meters" instead.

With these, the grid becomes the battery. We hear about "meters running backwards", which isn't really what happens, but current is measured as it moves in both directions.

If nobody's home on a sunny day, those modules are generating energy credits, they're sending energy into the grid for use by others.

I think it's really a kind of beautiful model of distributed generation with the reliability of the old utility model.

It will take time for everyone to get on board, but we're getting there!

[hrmjustin]

10. Thanks for the info.