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Roof top Solar for domestic needs @ Bangalore - can I do it today?
Written By silkboard - 20 April, 2010
Bangalore Power Renewable Energy Need Help environment Solar Power
A chance conversation with an acquaintance who works at a Solar Energy firm gave me a picture of the possibilities that await us. Now, I do read Solar Power/Panel Blogs/Forums etc once in a while, and have some idea of developments in the area. But I, like many of you I am sure, don't know much about the exact options available for me to try solar power here in Bangalore as an option to reduce my dependency on the Government's unreliable Power Grid.
What do I want to know? Here is a list.
- Daytime needs - Solar Power as primary source, and BESCOM only as a backup
- Night - If practically possible, some solution would be good , but not really a need, BESCOM for night and Surya Maami for the day is perfectly fine.
- Community grid/pooling - I am told it may not be possible to run high wattage appliances on solar power. If every house in my community decides to go Solar, and if we make a local area grid, can this "pooling" serve the variable power needs of the community?
- Price - Life of one time Investments that are needed, and Savings expected
- Surface area requirements - how much needed for typical household needs (4-5 Kw)
- Last, what are the government incentives for a consumer like me, or my community to go Solar!?
When I think Solar, either those water heaters come to mind, or the various rural market focused products (lanterns, cookers etc). Why isn't there enough push for urban or regular consumer applications?
Some data points I get are like this
- Need about 80 square feet area for 1 Kw worth power
- Cost for this may be about Rs 3 lakhs
- Whatever is required to integrate Solar supply with Government grid (BESCOM) so that Solar would be primary and BESCOM only for backup or variable needs exists, and is most likely included in the above price estimates
- Panels last for 25-30 years.
Adding it all up, let us see what is practical or possible right now
- For 5 Kw worth power, I would require 400 sqft of roof space.
- Appx cost would be 15 lakhs, I assume including some batteries/inverter/charge controller etc.
- Assume that this would serve me for 15 years, and I would be using BESCOM for 50% of my needs
- 1000 Rs Electricity bill would be cut to half, Rs 500 saved per month.
- 6000 an year, 9 lakhs over 15 years at today's costs. And I am not including annual maintenance costs, simply because I don't know!
Do the numbers above look right?
The two answers I don't have are:
- If a community of 500 families join in, does the cost/benefit equation change in anyway?
- I bet government will have incentives for communities too? What exactly do they have, and does it change the cost/benefit equation significantly?
So then, please add and correct if you know more.Won't we really like to explore this emerging environment friendly possibility!?
cheers,
SB aka Pranav
PS: Image above is sourced from Partha Das Sharma's blog
COMMENTS
Any more data anyone - can this be done?
silkboard - 15 September, 2010 - 05:43
Wanted to see if this can really be done for residential communities with enough space on rooftops for panels.
Also, if we can detail this, we can get deper into BESCOM/KREC etc to see if they are doing their best to promote such schemes.
Any domain experts willing to spread some gyan?
nl.srinivas - 21 April, 2010 - 04:43
What about the batteries? Unless we have a proper mechanism to dispose off or recycle batteries we should never go for this solution. The ill effects of chemicals (cadminum, lead, potassium, and many more) used in the batteries are all too well know if they get mixed with air, ground and water.
This is one thing we simply cannot ignore.
sanjayv - 20 April, 2010 - 17:31
SB, I can expand on solar or make a page of gyaan when time permits. This officially falls within my area of expertise, unlike all the other stuff I write on. For the time being, let me comment on your numbers.
- Need about 80 square feet area for 1 Kw worth power
- Cost for this may be about Rs 3 lakhs
- Whatever is required to integrate Solar supply with Government grid (BESCOM) so that Solar would be primary and BESCOM only for backup or variable needs exists, and is most likely included in the above price estimates
- Panels last for 25-30 years
80 sq feet for 1 kW worth of power - very optimistic. One a properly oriented panel, on a clear day, around noon, you could hope to get 1kW of power from about 100 square feet of panel (high efficiency, should be crystalline silicon, not amorphous). On an average, you will get far less.
Cost for one installed kW may be about 3 lakhs - sounds like a reasonable estimate. May be a bit higher than this number, but close.
There are many options for grid integrated solar. One option is a net metered connection whcih may not be legal in India at this point, where your meter spins backward when you are pumping energy back into the grid and forward when you are drawing net power from the grid.
Good quality panels today easily last 25-30 years with only small degradation in performance.
Sanjay - local area grid type thing?
silkboard - 23 April, 2010 - 09:48
Good thing Sanjay, so this is your domain then.
Net metered connection is good for Grid integration. But before going into giving back to the grid, I want to know if residental communities can pool in to get more benefits - both in terms of technollogy, and givt incentives?
- Technology side - everyone 'contributing' 300 sqft roof space, say 100 houses. So total 30000 sqft area, but not all at one place. All this joined into one local area grid. Doable? Any advantages over each house going on its own?
- Policy side - I am told individual households don't get any incentive or subsidy if they go solar (panels, battery pack etc). But if societies or communities do it, they get govt benefits.
Any idea?
Srinivas
Yes, yes. Aware of battery thing. I was exploring practical angles, but this too matters, cost angle - replacement cycle. and disposal angle (not explored yet)
Pictures of going solar at my home rooftop
Bheema.Upadhyaya - 21 April, 2013 - 10:50
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