/dev/null Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 But I have been told this more than once about actually putting power up back to the grid. For what its worth. I think that's going to be the future of the American Energy Industry Homes and buildings are going to have solar panels attached and generate their own power. What they don't use will be fed back into the grid and sold to the energy company. The energy company will then turn around and sell the energy that consumers produced to somebody that isn't producing their own (or enough of their own) energy. This however won't be enough energy to meet the energy needs of North America so power plants will still remain online to meet the demand and provide a backup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 Okay, so how much area would you need on the roof to power, say an office complex or high rise? A lot more than a single family house. Think about it...the amount of solar power you can generate on a building is roughly proportional to the area of the roof...but the amount the building would need would scale up roughly (very much so) with the volume of the building. So as you build up...more volume for the same roof area, hence the building generates a progressively smaller portion of its power needs via solar the higher it gets. Obviously that's not exact (office buildings have vastly different power needs than residential - different loads, different peak periods). But it's a pretty good order-of-magnitude calculation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YOOOOOO Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 This might be a stupid question, but could solar panels on a rooftop be enough to power an individual building? We just got finished installing a 75 KW ground mount at the CNC corp building in Tolland, CT....It just got state approval this week, In a month or so i can give ya an exact answer on how much of there usage was covered.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsWatch Posted August 16, 2008 Share Posted August 16, 2008 A lot more than a single family house. Think about it...the amount of solar power you can generate on a building is roughly proportional to the area of the roof...but the amount the building would need would scale up roughly (very much so) with the volume of the building. So as you build up...more volume for the same roof area, hence the building generates a progressively smaller portion of its power needs via solar the higher it gets. If you angle the building with the long side facing the southern sun you can get significantly more power as long as you do not have other buildings cast shadows on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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