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Showing posts from March, 2021

UNDERSTANDING THE VALUE OF SOLAR IN THE WEST KOOTENAYS

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  UPDATE FEBRUARY 2022 FINALLY SOME HONESTY   Solar garden costs 47c/kWh, and they said it would reach parity in 7 years.  Nelson hydro wholesale cost of power generation about 2c/kWh,  Solar is about 25 times more, PARITY??????? Below quoted from the city website  Utility companies use Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) as a metric for investment planning. It establishes a common comparative baseline across various forms of discounted energy generation over their lifetime. An updated  project analysis  completed in February 2022 concluded that 248 panels were installed from November 2015 to June 2017 at an actual cost of $331,372 generating an average of 66,622 kWh annually, with a customer investment of $221,657.30. Calculating the LCOE from an investment perspective using the project and maintenance actuals to the end of 2021 results in an LCOE of $0.47/kWh.   At least 25 X  more than Nelson hydro's wholesale cost of power! And it adds to our carbon footprint, nothing is cleaner or

THE BALFOUR SOLAR SCAM?

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Part 2   Part 1  is prerequisite reading!  Its a prerequisite to read my blog  Understanding solar in the Kootenays first. I am an Electrical Electronics Engineering Technolgist supervisor retired from a system with over 122 solar powered remote sites.  Solar made sense, it was cheaper than flying fuel by helicopters. I know solar. I haven't seen an honest solar grant application yet and I have seen many..   Since the beginning I have asked to have the deceptive  Balfour solar systems on line public monitoring data corrected. I did try to help director Faust understand I didn't think public grant money for solar power systems was good use of public dollars.  I did volunteer to review any bids to ensure good equipment was being installed. Next I knew the systems were installed.   CBT grants   state  projects must demonstrate a positive return on investment and significant community impact CBT grants are Not Eligible if  they have a narrowly defined benefit CWF grant eligibili