He is called a pragmatic doer, knowing his physics and engineering, devoid of ideology. This is how Josef Jenni is introduced in the preface to his document called How can we achieve the energy transition (Wie erreichen wir die Energiewende). It’s a manifesto and a technical overview – by the pioneer whose company had built…
Tag: Rooftop Solar
On Photovoltaic Generators and Scattering Cross Sections
Subtitle: Dimensional Analysis again. Our photovoltaic generator has about 5 kW rated ‘peak’ power – 18 panels with 265W each. Peak output power is obtained under so-called standard testing condition – 1 kWp (kilo Watt peak) is equivalent to: a panel temperature of 25°C (as efficiency depends on temperature) an incident angle of sunlight relative to…
First Year of Rooftop Solar Power and Heat Pump: Re-Visiting Economics
After I presented details for selected days, I am going to review overall performance in the first year. From June 2015 to May 2016 … … we needed 6.600 kWh of electrical energy in total. The heat pump consumed about 3.600 kWh of that … … in order to ‘pump it up to’ 16.800 kWh…
Photovoltaic Generator and Heat Pump: Daily Power Generation and Consumption
You can generate electrical power at home but you cannot manufacture your own natural gas, oil, or wood. (I exempt the minority of people owning forestry). This is often an argument for the combination of heat pump and photovoltaic generator. Last year I blogged in detail about economics of solar power and batteries and on…
Alien Energy
I am sure it protects us not only from lightning but also from alien attacks and EMP guns … So I wrote about our lightning protection, installed together with our photovoltaic generator. Now our PV generator is operational for 11 months and we have encountered one alien attack, albeit by beneficial aliens. The Sunny Baseline…
Half a Year of Solar Power and Smart Metering
Our PV generator and new metering setup is now operational for half a year; this is my next wall of figures. For the first time I am combining data from all our loggers (PV inverter, smart meter for consumption, and heat pump system’s monitoring), and I give a summary on our scrutinizing the building’s electrical…
The Impact of Ambient Temperature on the Output Power of Solar Panels
I have noticed the impact of traversing clouds on solar power output: Immediately after a cloud has passed, power surges to a record value. This can be attributed to the focusing effect of the surrounding clouds and/or cooling of the panels. Comparing data for cloudless days in May and June, I noticed a degradation of…
Solar Power: Some Data for the First Month.
On May 4, 2015, we started up our photovoltaic generator. Here are some numbers and plots for the first month – and what I plan to do next. Our generator has a rated power of 4,77 kWp (kilowatt peak), one module has 265 Wp. The generator would deliver 4,77 kW of electrical power under so-called…
We Have Come a Long Way: Rooftop Solar Power Now!
We had considered it already a few years ago – when we decided to live and work in the middle of a dusty and noisy construction site for a few months: The upper part of the roof is inclined by 30° – which is the optimum angle for photovoltaic panels – whereas the windows in…
elkemental Force 