Solar Panel Orientation

Orientation of your property is very important in being able to figure out what your solar panel system will produce. The government have something called a SAP calculation(Standard Assessment Procedure) and there is one for solar PV and solar thermal systems.

Both of these take into account the orientation of the panels that you propose to fit, the figures of what the panels produce will change depending on this. First thing to take into account is which way the panels will face.

If you look at the diagram above (4kW system – 16 x 250w panels) you will see that the optimum direction is south. There is not a massive drop production if they where facing East or West, but the further off south you go the figures will come down slightly. If you go round to North then you can see there is a significant drop in production. The figures installers give you will be based on its nearest directional point, either:

Next is the pitch, a factor in production too, whether it be the pitch of the roof or the bracket you are fixing the panels too (flat roof). The optimum pitch is around  30 degrees and you will see that in the diagram above it mentions the panels being at that pitch with the direction they are facing.

You can see the roof  to the right is 30 degrees, the optimum but the left roof is at 45 degrees. If we changed the roof pitch to 45 degrees in our first image above it would now look like this (see below – figures come down). If we change the pitch higher or lower, so the figures change.

As you can see the pitch of the panels and there direction make changes to what they will produce. Below is the table for calculating the solar panel annual kWh/m2 (kilowatt hours per square meter) set out by the governments SAP calculation. Don’t worry to much about this as not many people are spot on south at 30 degrees, we are just showing you how it is worked out.

GUIDE TO BUSINESS PLANNING

GUIDE TO BUSINESS PLANNING

This book is designed for those with an inspired idea who wish to translate it into a successful new business or incorporate it in an existing business. Usually, the first challenge for those who want to get a business idea off the ground is securing funding. Any investor or those in an existing business with responsibility for approving new initiatives will invariably insist upon seeing a business plan before they approve any investment. The business plan, besides being a prerequisite for gaining access to finance, also provides the blueprint for successfully creating and running the new venture. This book describes a business planning process that will support the preparation of a compelling business plan and the creation of a successful business.

[gview file=”https://aea-al.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Guide_to_Business_Planning.pdf” save=”1″]

Policy, Financing and Implementation

Renewable energy can provide a host of benefi ts to society. In addition to the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, governments have enacted renewable energy (RE) policies to meet a number of objectives including the creation of local environmental and health benefi ts; facilitation of energy access, particularly for rural areas; advancement of energy security goals by diversifying the portfolio of energy technologies and resources; and improving social and economic development through potential employment opportunities. Energy access and social and economic development have been the primary drivers in developing countries whereas ensuring a secure energy supply and environmental concerns have been most important in developed countries.

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Mitigation Potential and Costs

Renewable energy (RE) has the potential to play an important and increasing role in achieving ambitious climate mitigation targets. Many RE technologies are increasingly becoming market competitive, although some innovative RE technologies are not yet mature, economic alternatives to non-RE technologies. However, assessing the future role of RE requires not only consideration of the cost and performance of RE technologies, but also an integrative perspective that takes into account the interactions between various forces and the overall systems behaviors.

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Renewable Energy in the Context of Sustainable Development

Historically, economic development has been strongly correlated with increasing energy use and growth of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Renewable energy (RE) can help decouple that correlation, contributing to sustainable development (SD). In addition, RE offers the opportunity to improve access to modern energy services for the poorest members of society, which is crucial for the achievement of any single of the eight Millennium Development Goals.

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Integration of Renewable Energy into Present and Future Energy Systems

In many countries, suffi cient RE resources are available for system integration to meet a major share of energy demands, either by direct input to end-use sectors or indirectly through present and future energy supply systems and energy carriers, whether for large or small communities in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) or non-OECD countries. At the same time, the characteristics of many RE resources that distinguish them from fossil fuels and nuclear systems include their natural unpredictability and variability over time scales ranging from seconds to years. These can constrain the ease of integration and result in additional system costs, particularly when reaching higher RE shares of electricity, heat or gaseous and liquid fuels.

[gview file=”https://aea-al.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Ch8-Integration-of-Renewable.pdf” save=”1″]

Wind Energy

Wind energy offers signifi cant potential for near-term (2020) and long-term (2050) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions. A number of different wind energy technologies are available across a range of applications, but the primary use of wind energy of relevance to climate change mitigation is to generate electricity from larger, grid-connected wind turbines, deployed either on- or offshore. Focusing on these technologies, the wind power capacity installed by the end of 2009 was capable of meeting roughly 1.8% of worldwide electricity demand, and that contribution could grow to in excess of 20% by 2050 if ambitious efforts are made to reduce GHG emissions and to address the other impediments to increased wind energy deployment. Onshore wind energy is already being deployed at a rapid pace in many countries,
and no insurmountable technical barriers exist that preclude increased levels of wind energy penetration into electricity supply systems. Moreover, though average wind speeds vary considerably by location, ample technical potential exists in most regions of the world to enable signifi cant wind energy deployment. In some areas with good wind resources, the cost of wind energy is already competitive with current energy market prices, even without considering relative environmental impacts. Nonetheless, in most regions of the world, policy measures are still required to ensure rapid deployment. Continued advances in on- and offshore wind energy technology are expected, however, further reducing the cost of wind energy and improving wind energy’s GHG emissions reduction potential.

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Ocean Energy

Ocean energy offers the potential for long-term carbon emissions reduction but is unlikely to make a significant short term contribution before 2020 due to its nascent stage of development. In 2009, additionally installed ocean capacity was less than 10 MW worldwide, yielding a cumulative installed capacity of approximately 300 MW by the end of 2009. All ocean energy technologies, except tidal barrages, are conceptual, undergoing research and development (R&D), or are in the pre-commercial prototype and demonstration stage. The performance of ocean energy technologies is anticipated to improve steadily over time as experience is gained and new technologies are able to access poorer quality resources. Whether these technical advances lead to sufficient associated cost reductions to enable broad-scale deployment of ocean energy is the most critical uncertainty in assessing the future role of ocean energy in mitigating climate change. Though technical potential is not anticipated to be a primary global barrier to ocean energy deployment, resource characteristics will require that local communities in the future select among multiple available ocean technologies to suit local resource conditions.

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Hydropower

Hydropower offers signifi cant potential for carbon emissions reductions. The installed capacity of hydropower by the end of 2008 contributed 16% of worldwide electricity supply, and hydropower remains the largest source of renewable energy in the electricity sector. On a global basis, the technical potential for hydropower is unlikely to constrain further deployment in the near to medium term. Hydropower is technically mature, is often economically competitive with current market energy prices and is already being deployed at a rapid pace. Situated at the crossroads of two major issues for development, water and energy, hydro reservoirs can often deliver services beyond electricity supply. The signifi cant increase in hydropower capacity over the last 10 years is anticipated in many scenarios to continue in the near term (2020) and medium term (2030), with various environmental and social concerns representing perhaps the largest challenges to continued deployment if not carefully managed.

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Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy has the potential to provide long-term, secure base-load energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions. Accessible geothermal energy from the Earth’s interior supplies heat for direct use and to generate electric energy. Climate change is not expected to have any major impacts on the effectiveness of geothermal energy utilization, but the widespread deployment of geothermal energy could play a meaningful role in mitigating climate change. In electricity applications, the commercialization and use of engineered (or enhanced) geothermal systems (EGS) may play a central role in establishing the size of the contribution of geothermal energy to long-term GHG emissions reductions.

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