|
7653. alistairConnor - 8/20/2008 9:31:58 PM hum yes, but they burn gas.
I finally billed the electricity company the other day for the first time, for my PV generation!
The system has actually been generating for nearly 6 years now, but I didn't like the look of the contract they were proposing in those days : they only offered to buy surplus production (i.e. net metering) not total production, and the kwh price was pretty mediocre, about 15 cents. So for five years, I was giving it away.
But about a year and a half ago, they re-jigged the contracts : this was actually a consequence of EU integration and the end of the national electricity monopolies. I could have sold my green electricity to a German company for a much better price; so of course, EDF upped their offer. I signed on for 20 years at 55 cents a kwh, selling all my production. So giving it away was actually a smart move, because now I can pay back the investment in 4 or 5 years, instead of 12 or 15 if I had signed up for 20 years at the old rate.
When I looked at the meter last week to bill them, I was bitterly disappointed : it only showed 1700 kwh generated since last August, I was expecting nearly double that. It's taken me a week to work out what the problem is... (I feared for a while that the panels were prematurely ageing. They're alleged to lose about 1% a year.)
... in fact, when EDF installed their meter to buy my power, they didn't cut the link that feeds directly from my inverter to my switchboard. i.e. I'm consuming some of my solar electricity directly, instead of sending it into the grid (then buying it back once I've sold it...)
So this weekend I will fix that... and next year's bill should be a much fatter affair. 7654. alistairConnor - 8/20/2008 9:32:51 PM For the co-generation thing, I'll wait for these revolutionary fuel cells mentioned up thread a bit. 7655. thoughtful - 8/20/2008 9:59:13 PM AC, call me dense but I don't understand how you're better off selling it all to them rather than using some yourself...do they charge you less to use it than you receive when you generate it?
In our area, net metering is the only way to go as if you overproduce, the utility will only pay you wholesale prices for the amount you give them while charging higher retail prices for the amount you use. Therefore it makes sense to undersize rather than become a net power generator. 7656. anomie - 8/21/2008 3:31:40 AM I was using Google maps today and noticed they expanded their "street views". My house is clearly photographed from several angles. I looked up some known addresses and found clear photos of those houses. It's all very strange, and I don't really see the point of photographing noncommercial areas. 7657. alistairConnor - 8/21/2008 8:19:04 AM In Yurrup, my dear, they pay above-market rates for solar, to encourage generation. (The Germans did it first, obliging the others to follow suit.) So, yeah, when I consume during the daytime, I am actually buying back my own power at a cheaper rate. ("Will be"! I have to modify the wiring first!!)
The French method of encouraging solar was, typically, bureaucratic : I actually got more than half my investment back through subsidies. Now I get the German price too. So I'm double dipping. Not bad for what was originally a quixotic gesture. 7658. thoughtful - 8/21/2008 1:26:55 PM Ahh so. You crazy Europeans!
:) 7659. jexster - 8/28/2008 7:27:07 PM I just saw what looks like a sensibly green car for the City...parked just around the corner...great for parking space war
The Lotus Elise
 7660. jexster - 8/28/2008 7:29:48 PM Only 46K! 55 "nicely equipped" 7661. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/29/2008 6:43:03 PM Liquid graphics technology . . .
7662. jexster - 8/31/2008 12:32:30 AM Lotus EliseSC - The Green Roadcar
7663. concerned - 9/4/2008 11:45:12 PM Experts offer scaled-back sea level rise forecast
"If you look at the actual mechanics of how glaciers work, there doesn't seem to be a realistic way that we know about to get more than about 2 meters of sea level rise in the next century," Tad Pfeffer of the University of Colorado's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, whose study was published in the journal Science, said in a telephone interview.
Well, isn't this special? In 1980, the nutjobs were saying that the Antarctic ice cap would be totally melted by 2030. Just a couple years ago Al Gore promised 20 feet by 2100AD (Good thing I didn't waste my time or money on his garbage movie). And now....
I predict that I will ultimately be proved right with my 6-9" forecast that I've been making for the last 20 years.
Btw, AC, peak oil is being projected for some time after 2015 AD now. How ya wanna pay up?
7664. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 9/9/2008 1:34:06 AM Oil spills are never worth risking the loss of "Underwater Astonishments" . . .
7665. wabbit - 9/9/2008 1:46:18 AM Gotta love the squids and octopuses. Or are they Octopi? Either way, lots of interesting stuff at the TED conference, for those who might be interested. 7666. jexster - 9/10/2008 3:40:43 PM What Is Woodward's 'Secret Weapon' in Iraq? 7667. alistairconnor - 9/10/2008 3:54:26 PM Btw, AC, peak oil is being projected for some time after 2015 AD now. How ya wanna pay up?
Got a link with that?
My guess is that the people who are predicting "some time after 2015" are the same ones who were predicting "in thirty years or so", a year ago. 7668. alistairconnor - 9/10/2008 4:01:18 PM I want to get my daughter one of these
an electric Solex.
Most of you have never heard of the original (a motorized bicycle from medieval France). Mago, on the other hand, probably remembers how to have sex on a Solex. In motion.
(Not that I would want her to give my daughter any ideas) 7669. jexster - 9/10/2008 4:35:10 PM I bet the French teach toddlers about the Joys of Sex
Fucking animals 7670. alistairconnor - 9/10/2008 4:39:41 PM Experts offer scaled-back sea level rise forecast
What's astonishing is that the media have got this backwards. The IPCC report predicted 18 to 59 centimeters by 2100. These people from the University of Colorado predict between 80 and 200 centimeters, i.e. roughly four times as much.
This study is the highest informed estimate ever published, and sets Con up to lose his bet. 7671. magoseph - 9/10/2008 4:41:27 PM I remember the Vespa, this one: 
I never did any fooling in France--now here, that's another story.
7672. thoughtful - 9/12/2008 4:49:13 PM AC we call them mopeds here and my cousin had one...was riding along when the front wheel got stuck in a grate on the side of the road and he went right over the top...suffered brain damage. Be sure she wears a brain bucket (helmet).
|
