Largest Solar Rooftop In Europe Complete, In Germany!
Dennis Seiberth, president of international large-scale projects at the project development company Wirsol, said: “In this size we usually build solar parks.” He added that Wirsol was ambitious in its aims to build the plant in four weeks.
Largest solar rooftop in Europe. Image Credit: Wirsol.The power plant was connected to the grid in July.
“We are happy that we can now partially generate electricity by ourselves,” said Karl-Martin Pfenning, owner and managing partner of the Pfenning group. “With the photovoltaic installation we can annually save up to 5, 171 tons of CO2.”
Germany has one of the most successful solar markets in the world, and while many now know that, it is still quite impressive that a cloudy country could have such a successful solar market. It also makes one rethink the misconception that solar panels only work in direct sunlight.
I own a solar panel, which I have been running numerous tests on for over a year. It works in all weather. However, power production does decrease to an extent when the weather is cloudy. The darker the sky is, the less power the solar panel generates. The results of some of my tests can be found here.
Read more at http://cleantechnica.com/2013/08/17/largest-solar-rooftop-in-europe-complete-in-germany/#54l2A7WkMieVedAh.99
Here's your Friday Solar Fun Fact: the cost of solar panels has fallen about 100 times over since 1977, and solar panels today are nearly half as cheap as they were in 2008.
The Jobs Project: Unemployed Coal Miners Install Solar Panels In West Virginia
VICKI SMITH 02/ 2/11 03:18 PM ET 
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A group devoted to creating alternative energy jobs in Central Appalachia is building a first for West Virginia's southern coalfields region this week – a set of rooftop solar panels, assembled by unemployed and underemployed coal miners and contractors.
The 40- by 15-foot solar array going up on a doctor's office in Williamson is significant not for its size but for its location: It signals to an area long reliant on mining that there can be life beyond coal.
People were skeptical when the idea was first floated about a year ago, says Nick Getzen, spokesman for The Jobs Project, which is trying to create renewable energy job opportunities in West Virginia and Kentucky. In the southern coalfields, he says, people have only ever gotten electricity one way – from coal-fired power plants.
"This is the first sign for a lot of folks that this is real, and that it's real technology, and they can have it in their communities," Getzen says. "In no way are we against coal or trying to replace coal. There's still going to be coal mining here. This is just something else to help the economy."
The Jobs Project teamed up about a year ago with a solar energy company from the Eastern Panhandle, Mountain View Solar & Wind of Berkeley Springs, to develop a privately funded job-training program. The 12 trainees are earning $45 an hour for three days of work, while some local laborers are earning $10 an hour helping out.
Mountain View owner Mike McKechnie is also buying all his electrical supplies from a local business.
"We are not funded by any state organization. We're doing this as a business because we want to grow the solar infrastructure and industry," McKechnie says. "We're West Virginians, and we think it's important. There's a need here that's not being met."
Demand for solar energy has been growing in West Virginia, and McKechnie's company has been expanding with it. Mountain View has tripled in size two years in a row and is likely to do the same in 2011. It now employs 15 full-time workers, five part-timers and a network of about a dozen electricians, plumbers, roofers and general contractors who do installations when McKechnie calls.
"This training model we're unleashing in Williamson is something we've proven," McKechnie says. "It's not a pilot project. It's something we've shown works."
Besides installing the rooftop array, the trainees and three of McKechnie's employees will also be doing assessments on seven other properties this week.
"What we're doing is giving them a crash course. They get an introduction, and if they want to continue, then that's who we'll call in the future," he says.
If they like the work, they'll follow up with additional training in the Eastern Panhandle "to get them to a certain caliber, and then they'll continue their training as we start to do work down there," McKechnie says. "We're hoping they will go out on their own and find some sales leads and close those sales. We want to develop the entrepreneurial spirit so eventually they can go out on their own."
McKechnie says he's not worried about creating competitors because there's plenty of work to go around.
"The public wants it and they can't find it," he says.
McKechnie uses only American-made solar panels, and representatives of his supplier, Oregon-based Solar World USA, are expected to be in Williamson on Thursday for the public unveiling of the project.
"We're impressed with the focused enthusiasm and boldness of Mountain View Solar and Wind, and its partnership with The Jobs Project to spread the economic activity and financial savings of solar, and we want to do whatever we can to support and enhance the effort," Solar World USA spokesman Ben Santarris said.
The rooftop array on the doctor's office cost about $90,000 and McKechnie says it will produce 11.7 kilowatts of electricity, or enough to reduce utility costs by about 20 percent. The system should pay for itself in about seven years.
Getzen acknowledges many people can't afford such an investment.
"It's going to take a little while to get going," he says.
But The Jobs Project is trying to figure out how to do projects without upfront capital. Already, he says, federal tax credits and grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture can help reduce costs, and people can seek low-interest loans.
"I just hope that through this project," Getzen says, "we find many more."
Solar-powered gas station opens in Salt Lake City
SALT LAKE CITY – A gas station running on green energy may seem like a contradiction in terms, but a Salt Lake City Chevron owner has turned to solar power to keep the lights on at her downtown gas station.
Tammy Reid owns the Chevron gas station located on West Temple and 500 South, and her station is the first solar-powered gas station in the state.
Reid said she thinks the solar panels giver her station a unique draw.
“I think it’s gonna bring in more business and people will think I’m environmentally friendly,” she said.
Reid hired a West Jordan company called Solartek Solutions to install more than 125 solar panels on the canopy just above where customers pump their gas. Meg McIntyre of Solartek Solutions said the panels will mean big savings for Reid.
“With the inclusion of solar and LED, we’re gonna cut this Chevron station’s power bill in half and the great thing is she now owns half of her electricity,” McIntyre said.
Jeff Hymas with Rocky Mountain Power said solar power makes up a fraction of their customer base, but he said the number of solar, or net-metered, customers has doubled since 2009.
“With the incentives available now and the technology has improved, it’s made it possible for people to get solar energy without having such a long payback period,” Hymas said.
Reid said she hopes to pay off her investment within four years, especially considering the help she’s received.
“I originally was billed $161,000, and then after I got grants from the state, federal and then Rocky Mountain Power—it’s put me down to $22,000 is what I’ll be paying out-of-pocket.”
Reid said adding the solar panels was as much about helping the environment as it was about saving her store money. She said those who fill up their cars at her Chevron may be leaving a big carbon footprint, but she hopes to at least reduce her own.
