Vegas Sparkles With Solar Energy

By Nathan Lew

In a plan that is less surprising than audacious, Las Vegas city fathers plan to place solar panels on top of carports at a number of city-owned and operated facilities.

The $11-million plan, will reportedly cut the city's electricity costs by about $300,000 a year when completed, and generate enough electricity to supply 170 homes.

The solar panels in question have a life expectancy of between 25 and 40 years (the first figure being closer to the expert's usual estimates), and the city's investment of $600,000 from a "green" building fund will reportedly be recaptured in about 15 years.

The rest of the funding - $4,150,000 of Energy Efficiency Community Block Grant funds (EECBG), $1,276,738 from Community Development Block Grant Recovery (CDBG-R, or ARRA) funds, and $5.1 million from New Clean Renewable Energy Bonds, as well as utility rebates for renewable energy - makes up the balance.

The project will initially start with three sets of panels mounted across 34 carport stalls and paid for by ARRA funding, and will be located at the new Stupak Community Center at 300 W. Boston Ave. (across the street from the Chester Stupak Park). The center, built in 2008 at a cost of $7.5 million, is nearly complete and contains 34,183 square feet of ESL and general classrooms, an indoor gym/aerobic fitness and weight control center, a kitchen, a library and a game room. Opening is scheduled for this winter.

Two other solar projects, also slated for carport roofs on public buildings, will finish the 950-kilowatt project, which is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the city's carbon footprint by 949 tons of carbon monoxide (which would have been produced by burning fossil fuels). Stupak Center solar project construction is expected to start in 2010.

The new Stupak Community Center is slated for completion this fall, with an opening proposed for this winter. The solar carport at the center is expected to break ground sometime in 2010.

The panels, funded from the Community Development Block Grant Recovery portion of ARRA, is the first project approved in the region, which includes Nevada, California, Arizona and Hawaii, and will provide between 10 and 30 percent of the center's power needs, depending on usage.

The panels also provide covered parking, and they, along with solar installations at the waste water treatment plant, will move the city to 10 percent of renewable power by 2011, which is close to Nevada's Renewable Energy Standard (RES) of 25 percent of energy from renewables by 2025.

Cooler Planet is a leading solar resource for connecting consumers and commercial entities with local solar Installers. Cooler Planet's solar energy resource page contains articles and tools about solar panels to help with your solar project.

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Micro Inverters A Step Forward For Solar Energy

Enphase Energy has developed a great new product. It's a micro-inverter that attaches directly to the solar panel. In most systems, DC current come from the panels and go into a large inverter that converts it to AC for use in the house or to tie into the grid.

The Enphase micro inverters now convert it directly to AC current for use in the house and tie into the electric grid. According to Enphase it is also more efficient than normal inverters.

There are some terrific advantages to this approach:

• You can start out with a smaller system and add panels as you can afford them or need them -mismatch is not as much of an issue.
  
• The panels don't need to be the same type or wattage.
• If there is a problem on one micro inverter, you don't lose all of your output as you would if a large inverter went on the blitz.
• Installation is simplified as the panels are wired in parallel and there are no DC strings
• The micro inverters mount on a rack under the solar panel
• The performance of each module is tracked in five minute intervals and is transmitted over the same AC lines - if a problem develops the data will indicate it.
• The system is reliable with meantime between failures at 119 years.
• According to Enphase the micro inverters allows a greater harvest of energy of between five and twenty percent over traditional inverters.

For an animated presentation of the system.

Learn more about solar energy

Solar Energy Systems Add to the Value of Your Home

There is some interesting information for people who are interested in solar energy. Many people when thinking about solar energy don't think about is how the installation of a solar system impacts the value of your house.

According to a study done by the Appraisal Institute which is an organization for professional appraisers, solar systems do have a positive impact on the value of the property.

The Appraisal Institute estimate that for that for every dollar of saving that a system produces annually, it adds twenty to the value of the house. For instance if your system generates a saving of 500.00 annually, then you can expect it to increase the value of your home by $10,000.

This is another consideration when looking at the affordability and the economics of going to solar for your energy needs.

For more information about solar energy see Solar Energy Solutions
photo above is from the Department of Energy showing solar panels on the back porch awning.