CA to pay $500 for solar panels to face west

[petersonra]

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/...wrong-solar-panels-should-face-west-not-south

 

[GoldDigger]

The incentive program mentioned is still only hypothetical and is not a state program per se.
It is a good thing for POCO and for grid stability, but without actual monetary incentives it may not benefit the homeowner.
In some cases a mix of partially east and west facing panels can provide the best ROI by keeping the inverter running at full output for a longer time period.

 

[ggunn]

The incentive program mentioned is still only hypothetical and is not a state program per se.
It is a good thing for POCO and for grid stability, but without actual monetary incentives it may not benefit the homeowner.
In some cases a mix of partially east and west facing panels can provide the best ROI by keeping the inverter running at full output for a longer time period.

Also, if there are time of use variations in the electric rate, it may be advantageous for the array to be pointed more to the west. Here in Austin we do not have TOU (not yet, anyway), so it's not to the array owner's benefit to do that.

 

[kwired]

Make them rotate as the sun moves across the sky - probably will cost much more then the $500 incentive plus energy savings though.

Wind generators however do rotate as the wind changes direction:happyyes:

 

[GoldDigger]

Make them rotate as the sun moves across the sky - probably will cost much more then the $500 incentive plus energy savings though.

Wind generators however do rotate as the wind changes direction:happyyes:

But what happens when it is the political winds change direction?
Just for background probably 95%+ of residential scale wind turbines are either incorrectly installed or POS or both. Legitimate small scale wind is a very small niche.
If you always have to tie your hat down when you go outside, your site may have real potential, but anecdotal "really windy" is often misleading.

 

[kwired]

But what happens when it is the political winds change direction?
Just for background probably 95%+ of residential scale wind turbines are either incorrectly installed or POS or both. Legitimate small scale wind is a very small niche.
If you always have to tie your hat down when you go outside, your site may have real potential, but anecdotal "really windy" is often misleading.

If you come here you will find you need to tie your hat down more often then not. Electric utility rates are among some of the lowest in the nation here though, so there isn't much for residential scale wind generation either. Commercial wind generation is just starting to pick up in this area, part of the problem why it hasn't happened sooner is there isn't distribution infrastructure to get the potential wind power out of the area, but there are proposed transmission lines in the works that will allow for more commercial wind generation.

 

[GoldDigger]

Good to hear that progress is being made, based on actual economic considerations!