I am doing a school project and we need to find the cost of solar panels for our school. The problem is i don't know what size the system needs to be. Is it 000 watts or 000000 watts?Also can you find the cost of the system?Thanks
Good question I am uncomfortable doing my child's homework so I will not complete the assignment for you. I am also always willing to help. Having the kWh is a great start. You must also ask the question when you size a system is there any way to reduce this load. Each kWh that you do not have to produce saves significant cost to the system. Next what type of system grid tied or off grid the two systems will have very different size needs and overall cost. I googled PV system sizing and got the below link. at first glance I like it. You can do the same for system cost. I also included a trade link for your review factors in sizing system type amount of bill offsetting geographic location site location track mounted or fixed and more Should you need additional help you can email me I will not do your work for you but I can either verify it or point you in the right direction
Take a look at the website from Retscreen International. This is a site sponsored by the Canadian government and they have everything that you will ever need to know about renewable energy. Download the free software and then feed in the position of your school (GPS Coordinates) and some data about energy useage. It will then link to the NASA websites to tell you the weather and work out what size of solar panel you need, what direction it should point and what angle it needs to be mounted on. I've used it for the UK, Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan and other countries - It's brilliant - and its free. It also links to manufacturers websites and so gives you costings. Use this and you are guaranteed to be top of the class
Without them providing the amount of energy your school uses then it's impossible to know how many panels you would need. Just phrase it in the form of how much space or how many panels would be needed to create (X) amount of power. Ask the amount the school uses then go from there. Let's put it this way, with today's solar technology you would probably have to cover most of the roof of the school with solar panels and it still wouldn't be enough to run the school entirely. Never mind the cost of out-fitting a building of that size, it would take far to many years to pay off and would probably never offset the cost of electricity they are paying now considering maintenance, upkeep and replacement costs associated with these systems. If it was that easy and cost effective, they would have already done it. Make sure you squeeze that into your report somewhere. Find out how much electricity costs in your area, its on any electric bill, it should show the cost per Kw/h somewhere (If separated by peak time and non-peak time, your school would be peak time). After you get that and how much the school uses, do the math and include a graph comparison showing the cost of both. You should be able to find the costs of solar panels online somewhere. Do a side by side comparison from start up cost, upkeep and all versus using the current source. Good luck on your report.
