We are trying to look in this article at top recourses in solar training.

Boots on the Roof -  bootsontheroof.com – US solar energy training provider, offer courses for licensed contractors from the electrical, HVAC, plumbing, roofing and general contracting areas who want to position themselves for the opportunities in wond and solar. Also training new staff for the solar and wind industry as sales professionals, project managers, engineers and designers.

AEE Solar – aeesolar.com – one of the largest solar equipment manufactures in the States also offers training. Options include hands on PV (photovoltaic) training covering design and installation, “Launch and Grow Your Solar Business” Webinar – a free webinar for people starting in the industry as new businesses,  Supplier Webinars – free webinars from AEE Solar suppliers and partners, and many more. We guess the availability of free options is great with this company.

Heatspring Learning Institute – heatspring.com – an educational company focused on providing clean energy training to building professionals. The company offers courses both in solar and geothermal systems.

Training4Green – training4green.com – part of Allied Schools, offers courses like Business of Solar, Introduction to Photovoltaic Systems, Advanced Principles of Photovoltaic Systems Installation.

Solar Training Institute – trainingforsolar.com – provides accelerated training classes for contractors, electricians, engineers, solar energy entrepreneurs and sales people, and anyone who is considering a career change in the growing solar industry.

Rich Hessler Solar Sales Training – pvsolarsalestraining.com – provides complete residential sales training course for a solar sales process.  The sales training includes: Understanding Photovoltaic Systems, Solar system estimate, Cost justification, Quality Solar Presentation, Handling Objections, Effectively closing a solar sale, Beginning a solar career.

US Dept. of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Solar Installer Instructor Training Network – http://www1.eere.energy.gov/solar/instructor_training_network.html –  promotes high-quality training in the installation of solar technologies. Nine regional resource and training providers support the professional development of trainers and instructors of solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar heating and cooling (SHC) technologies across the country. The goals of Solar Installer Instructor Training are to accelerate market adoption of solar technologies by ensuring that high-quality installations are standard and to create sustainable jobs within the solar installation industry.

Step Up Education, Solar Classes Online – solarclassesonline.com – offers a fully-comprehensive online training program for individuals who want to be a part of the fast-growing solar industry. The programs they offer are mapped to industry standards to provide you with proven general and practical knowledge. Tey state: Once hired, graduates will be fully prepared to hit the ground running. Current workers in the industry will be ready to take the next step in their careers.

Solar Thermal Training Classes from SunMaxx Solar – solarthermaltraining.org – If you are a plumbing and heating expert, you have most definitely heard about the huge explosion in the Solar Hot Water Industry over the last few months and years – in fact, you have likely had customers and leads ask you about Solar Hot Water for their own homes or businesses. SunMaxx is giving you the opportunity to get in at the ground level today, and become the premier Solar Hot Water System Dealer & Installer in your area through SunMaxx Solar Hot Water Dealer Installer Program. SunMaxx is seeking professional, trained and experienced plumbing and heating specialists who are interested in adding Solar Hot Water Sales and Installation to their current business. SunMaxx Solar systems are world-renowned for their performance, reliability and simplicity – and SunMaxx Dealers & Installers put a friendly, trusting face on the SunMaxx Brand across the United States and around the world.

Sun Pirate Solar – Sun Pirate Renewable Energy Technician Solar Training – sunpiratesolar.com – Sun Pirate, Inc. is committed to provide the  community, industry, organization, and student technicians with superior service and continuous education as SunPirate Inc realize the growth of the renewable energy industry only will come with applied knowledge. Through their solar training they intend to aid the growth of the industry by teaching those interested how to work on the technology involved with this emerging industry.

Solar Sphere – spheralsolar.com – solar training books, solar training videos, hands on and online training videos. every day they help more than 1000 customers find the solar power kits and solar panels they need. With a selection of over 1000 solar power kits products you are sure to find just the item you are looking for. They have been in the Solar  business since 1998 and truly appreciate the opportunity to serve you today and in the future.

We list the cheapest panels dollar per watt that we can find on the internet and through direct research. We also include listings of products our readers submit to us through the  Contact Us form or in the comments. Representatives of the different vendors are welcome to submit info about their products too. Very differently from other “cheapest solar panels lists” out there we will not charge you for that and we will not tell you the list is already full – yep, this is what some publishers of lowest prices in solar have told some of the vendors of realistically the cheapest panels in certain sizes. Yeah, we had a good laugh listening to the story of one of the vendors here trying to get listed with a web page claiming to be a free survey of the lowest prices. While these vendors were not allowed to be listed their after being asked for money and told that the list is full already there are companies on their list that are listed twice.

We do not claim at all that these are research and results of an absolute character. That is, we realize that there might be products, vendors, pricing structures for certain types of projects and quantities that we are not able to identify through our effort.

That is why nobody should get offended that their product brand or vendor company is not included in our research or they are not ranked correctly because we have not found out about their lowest, low or otherwise competitive prices.

While we maintain that prices as dollar per Watt ($/Wp, dollar per Watt peak) is the number that will take the solar power industry to the stage of playing a major role of resolving the gigantic issues the US and the world have with securing clean, safe and abundant source of energy, we also realize that with many products groups prices reflect many other things than just willingness of the manufactures and the marketers to provide an affordable product.

Namely, different prices may reflect different quality and quality preference of the market – i.e. higher quality products may maintain relatively higher prices given all other factors being equal.

Different prices may reflect different costs to manufacture products of certain type of technology. We are well aware that this is especially true with solar panels. We will try, as effort grows to provide a way for our readers to be able to separate prices listed and researched for different underlying technologies of products.

In this edition of the lowest prices article for example we are separating in different tables the three most popular commercially available cell technologies on which solar photovoltaic modules are based: monocrystalline, polycrystalline and thin-film. That should make it very easy for our readers to get to useful information about the competitors in the different technologies. Also it will give a chance for a vendor who offers a good price in one technology to not to be shadowed by a vendor with low price in the other technology.

We also have tried to include more sizes, that is make the list much longer in order to give chance for vendors that are not necessarily with the lowest price to show in the study. One thing you can expect in future editions is to see the lists broken down in different size ranges which should give even better chance for vendors to appear in their area of strength.

In any case if any reader, buyer or seller of solar products thinks that our best research effort has not presented certain vendors, brand or price – please, feel free to contact us and forward to us details of the the product and price you think we should list. We will add additional level to research to verify that such price is being offered on regular basis and will try to reflect this in our report.

The reason we believe prices in dollar per watt peak with solar photovoltaic modules is so critical for this industry to take off as a major player in resolving the energy issues the world has created for itself is that such price is a major factor in the economic efficiency of a solar power installation. See our article Economics of Solar Power on this.

Have in mind in addition to the very sharply falling prices of solar modules what else is driving the further acceptance of this clean energy technology is the government incentives programs that exist in different places in the world including incentives on federal level in the US in the form of a 30% tax credit on total installation costs and other different state level subsidies and feed in tariffs.

Here is or current ranking:

Monocrystalline

($/Wp, $ per module, Wp of the module, technology, Model, Brand,Vendor, URL to the vendor’s page)

$2.25 / Wp, $416.25, 185W, Mono-crystalline, SMD185M, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $405.00, 180W, Mono-crystalline, SMD180M, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $540.00, 240W, Mono-crystalline, SMD240M, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com (sizes over 190W from SolarMaxDirect.com are not UL listed)
(SolarMaxDirect’s prices for less than a container size of order are $2.70)

$3.20 / Wp, $544.00, 170W, Mono-crystalline, DMSOLAR 170 MONO, BrightWatts, DmSolar, http://www.dmsolar.com

$3.40 / Wp, $594.41, 175W, Mono-crystalline, NT-175U, Sharp, Infinigi, http://www.infinigi.com

$3.57 / Wp, $625.00, 175W, Mono-crystalline, SW175, Solar World, Backwoods Solar, http://www.backwoodssolar.com

Polycrystalline

($/Wp, $ per module, Wp of the module, technology, Model, Brand, Vendor, URL to the vendor’s page)

$2.25 / Wp, $427.50, 190W, Poly-crystalline, SMD190P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $416.25, 185W, Poly-crystalline, SMD185P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $405.00, 180W, Poly-crystalline, SMD180P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $393.75, 175W, Poly-crystalline, SMD175P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$2.25 / Wp, $382.50, 170W, Poly-crystalline, SMD170P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com
(sizes over 190W from SolarMaxDirect.com are not UL listed)
(SolarMaxDirect’s prices for less than a container size of order are $2.70)

$2.43 / Wp, $509.97, 210W, Poly-crystalline, REC210AE, REC, The Solar Biz, http://www.thesolarbiz.com

$2.43 / Wp, $533.97, 220W, Poly-crystalline, REC220AE, REC, The Solar Biz, http://www.thesolarbiz.com

$2.43 / Wp, $424.97, 175W, Poly-crystalline, BP 175B, BP Solar, The Solar Biz, http://www.thesolarbiz.com

$2.44 / Wp, $549.00, 225W, Poly-crystalline, REC EA US 225, REC, Sun Electronics, http://sunelec.com

$2.54 / Wp, $558.00, 220W, Poly-crystalline, REC EA US 220, REC, Sun Electronics, http://sunelec.com

$2.59 / Wp, $543.90, 210W, Poly-crystalline, REC210AE, REC, BeyondOilSolar, http://www.beyondoilsolar.com
(many REC sizes from BeyondOilSolar are at this price)

$2.60 / Wp, $312.00, 120W, Poly-crystalline, DMSOLAR 120 POLY, BrightWatts, DmSolar, http://www.dmsolar.com

$2.68 / Wp, $522.60, 195W, Poly-crystalline, ES-A-195-fa3b, Evergreen, Sun Electronics, http://sunelec.com

$2.89 / Wp, $635.80, 220W, Poly-crystalline, SCHOTT POLY 220, Schott, Affordable Solar, http://www.affordable-solar.com

$2.99 / Wp, $523.25, 175W, Poly-crystalline, PV-UD175MF5, Mitsubishi Solar, Affordable Solar, http://www.affordable-solar.com

Thin-film

($/Wp, $ per module, Wp of the module, technology, Model, Brand,Vendor, URL to the vendor’s page)

$3.87 / Wp, $232, 60W, Thin-film, Kaneka, GSA-60, Living Off The Grid, http://livingoffthegrid.ecrater.com

$3.97 / Wp, $237.98W, Thin-film, Kaneka, GSA-60, Green Box Usa, http://www.greenboxusa.com

Feel free to send suggestions through comments on our articles or the Contact Us page.

Related articles on the web:

The GOOD 100: Chinese Solar

This Year’s Top 10 Largest Venture Funding Deals

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Why Did Solar Panel Prices Drop So Much [Video]

SolarByTheWatt.com – Solar By The Watt

The prices of solar photovoltaic panels has fallen dramatically in recent months. News about manufactures starting to feel oversupply of production despite the growing activity in solar power plant construction has made many of them lower prices of modules that are commercially available.

While there are rumors and constant news reports about companies especially in the newest of the photovoltaic technologies trying to deal with the $1 per watt barrier the panels that are available commercially are still above $2 per watt peak. By commercially available we mean a purchaser fro a solar power project can pick up a phone a order them with at most a month to two months lead time for delivery, including possible production lead time for orders above a couple of tens of kilowatt (kW).

Recently SolarMaxDirect.com has lowered prices for large orders to $2.25 per watt peak.

With the 30% federal tax credit available for US projects the realistic cost in the project for panels is just $1.575. Having in mind the tax credit can be applied to all the costs for the project currently more than ever investing in solar power is economically efficient.

In addition to the federal tax credit many states offer a direct rebate on certain equipment up to a couple of dollar per watt and also many states offer special feed-in-tariffs (FITs) for the electricity produced by solar power installations.

We list the cheapest panels dollar per watt that we can find on the internet and through direct research. We also include listings of products our readers submit to us through or Contact Us form or in the comments. Representatives of the different vendors are welcome to submit info about their products too.  Very differently from other “cheapest solar panels lists”  out there we will not charge you for that and we will not tell you the list is already full – yep, this is what some publishers of lowest prices in solar have told some of the vendors of realistically the cheapest panels in certain sizes. Yeah, we had a good laugh listening to the story of one of the vendors here trying to get listed with a web page claiming to be a free survey of the lowest prices. While these vendors were not allowed to be listed their after being asked for money and told that the list is full already there are companies on their list that are listed twice.

We do not claim at all that these are research and results of an absolute character. That is, we realize that there might be products, vendors, pricing structures for certain types of projects and quantities that we are not able to identify through our effort.

That is why nobody should get offended that their product brand or vendor company is not included in our research or they are not ranked correctly because we have not found out about their lowest, low or otherwise competitive prices.

While we maintain that prices as dollar per Watt ($/Wp, dollar per Watt peak) is the number that will take the solar power industry to the stage of playing a major role of resolving the gigantic issues the US and the world have with securing clean, safe and abundant source of energy, we also realize that with many products groups prices reflect many other things than just willingness of the manufactures and the marketers to provide an affordable product.

Namely, different prices may reflect different quality and quality preference of the market – i.e. higher quality products may maintain relatively higher prices given all other factors being equal.

Different prices may reflect different costs to manufacture products of certain type of technology. We are well aware that this is especially true with solar panels. We will try, as effort grows to provide a way for our readers to be able to separate prices listed and researched for different underlying technologies of products.

In this edition of the lowest prices article for example we are separating in different tables the three most popular commercially available cell technologies on which solar photovoltaic modules are based: monocrystalline, polycrystalline and thin-film. That should make it very easy for our readers to get to useful information about the competitors in the different technologies. Also it will give a chance for a vendor who offers a good price in one technology to not to be shadowed by a vendor with low price in the other technology.

We also have tried to include more sizes, that is make the list much longer in order to give chance for vendors that are not necessarily with the lowest price to show in the study. One thing you can expect in future editions is to see the lists broken down in different size ranges which should give even better chance for vendors to appear in their area of strength.

In any case if any reader, buyer or seller of solar products thinks that our best research effort has not presented certain vendors, brand or price – please, feel free to contact us and forward to us details of the the product and price you think we should list. We will add additional level to research to verify that such price is being offered on regular basis and will try to reflect this in our report.

The reason we believe prices in dollar per watt peak with solar photovoltaic modules is so critical for this industry to take off as a major player in resolving the energy issues the world has created for itself is that such price is a major factor in the economic efficiency of a solar power installation. See our article Economics of Solar Power on this.

Have in mind in addition to the very sharply falling prices of solar modules what else is driving the further acceptance of this clean energy technology is the government incentives programs that exist in different places in the world including incentives on federal level in the US in the form of a 30% tax credit on total installation costs and other different state level subsidies and feed in tariffs.

Here is or current ranking:

Monocrystalline

($/Wp, $ per module, Wp of the module, nominal voltage, technology, Brand, Model, Vendor, URL to the vendor’s page)

$3.15 / Wp, $630, 200W, 43.60V, Mono-crystalline, SMD200M, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$3.30 / Wp, $726, 220W, 45.2V, Mono-crystalline, SMD220M, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$3.30 / Wp, $610.50, 185W, 36V, Mono-crystalline, SMD185M, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$5.03 / Wp, $1,005.00, 200W, 42V, Mono-crystalline, HIT-200BA19, Sanyo, atlE Store, http://store.altenergystore.com

$5.16 / Wp, $1,032, 200W, 55.8V, Mono-crystalline, HIP-200BA19, Sanyo, Affordable Solar Group LLC, http://www.affordable-solar.com

$5.52 / Wp, $552, 100W, 18V, Mono-crystalline, SW100C, Sunwize, atlE Store, http://store.altenergystore.com

Polycrystalline

($/Wp, $ per module, Wp of the module, nominal voltage, technology, Brand, Model, Vendor, URL to the vendor’s page)

$2.95 / Wp, $516.25, 175W, 24.2V, Poly-crystalline, SMD175P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$3.30 / Wp, $445.50, 135W, 20.6V, Poly-crystalline, SMD135P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$3.30 / Wp, $594.00, 180W, 24.2V, Poly-crystalline, SMD180P, SolarMaxDirect, SolarMaxDirect.com, http://SolarMaxDirect.com

$3.54 / Wp, $637, 180W, 24V, Poly-crystalline, CSI ECOSENSE CS6P-180, Canadian Solar, Affordable Solar Group LLC, http://www.affordable-solar.com

$3.56 / Wp, $142.49, 40W, 17.3V, Poly-crystalline, BP Solar, Discount Sales Electronics, http://discountsales.com

$3.94 / Wp, $630, 160W, 24.9V, Poly-crystalline, ES-160-A, Evergreen Solar, KULLY Solar, http://kullysolar.com

$4.62 / Wp, $1,016, 220W, 28.7V, Poly-crystalline, SCM220, REC Solar, Affordable Solar Group LLC, http://www.affordable-solar.com

$5.48 / Wp, $328.88, 60W, 12V, Poly-crystalline, CD Tech Solar, RV Fun Products, http://www.rvfunproducts.com

Thin-film

($/Wp, $ per module, Wp of the module, nominal voltage, technology, Brand, Model, Vendor, URL to the vendor’s page)

$3.83 / Wp, $230, 60W, 67V, Thin-film, Kaneka, GSA-60, Living Off The Grid, http://livingoffthegrid.ecrater.com

Feel free to send suggestions through comments on our articles or the Contact Us page.

Related articles on the web:

Wall Street Journal – Applying Moore’s Law To Solar

Chicago Tribune – ?xelon plans to build solar power plant on Chicago’s South Side

Barron’s Blogs – Solar: Citi Says Installers See 10%-25% Module Price Cut

Cleantech Group – The REAL story on Moore’s Law & solar

t r u t h o u t – Exelon Plans to Build Solar Power Plant

TG Daily – Texas to fund half billion solar project

My Dollar Plan – Solar Energy Tax Credit Details

Geek.com – Cost of solar-grade poly-silicon ingots decreasing rapidly …

SolarByTheWatt.com – Solar By The Watt

Model	Techn ology	Rated Power, W	Vmp, V	Imp, A	Peak Power, Wp, W	Surface Size, ft	Surface Area, sq ft	Power Density, W / Sq Ft
SMD190P	Poly-	190	24.48	7.76	190.0	4.34×3.24	14.045	13.53
SMD185M	Mono-	185	35.96	5.15	185.2	5.18×2.65	13.742	13.48
SMD240M	Mono-	240	46.90	5.11	239.7	5.18×3.48	18.027	13.29
SMD185P	Poly-	185	24.48	7.56	185.1	4.34×3.24	14.045	13.18
SMD180M	Mono-	180	35.65	5.05	180.0	5.18×2.65	13.742	13.10
STP-180	Mono-	180	35.60	5.05	179.8	5.18×2.65	13.742	13.08
SMD090M	Mono-	90	18.36	4.90	90.0	3.93×1.78	7.008	12.84
KD205	Poly-	205	26.60	7.71	205.1	4.92×3.25	15.984	12.83
SMD180P	Poly-	180	24.24	7.43	180.1	4.34×3.24	14.045	12.82
PV-UD190	Poly-	190	24.70	7.71	190.4	5.44×2.74	14.884	12.79
SMD230M	Mono-	230	46.40	4.96	230.1	5.18×3.48	18.027	12.77
SMD175M	Mono-	175	35.71	4.90	175.0	5.18×2.65	13.742	12.73
SMD155P	Poly-	155	21.21	7.31	155.0	3.82×3.24	12.366	12.54
NT-175U1	Mono-	175	35.40	4.95	175.2	5.17×2.71	13.993	12.52
SMD175P	Poly-	175	24.24	7.22	175.0	4.34×3.24	14.045	12.46
SW175	Mono-	175	35.70	4.90	174.9	5.28×2.66	14.037	12.46
SMD215P	Poly-	215	30.30	7.10	215.1	5.39×3.25	17.515	12.28
SMD220M	Mono-	220	45.20	4.87	220.1	5.18×3.48	18.027	12.21
KAN60	Thin-Film	60	67.00	0.90	60.3	3.15×3.25	10.230	5.89

This is a key to the different models – how they correspond to a brand name and a website of one possible vendor. SMD – SolarMaxDirect – http://SolarMaxDirect.com STP – Suntech Power http://store.solar-electric.com KAN – Kaneka – http://store.altestore.com KD – Kyocera – http://store.solar-electric.com PVUD – Mitsubishi – http://aeesolar.com SW – Solar Wordl – http://aeesolar.com NT – Sharp – http://sunwize.com We reiterate here that we were looking for the data from the specification sheets that come on different product pages of different vendors. Apart from the ordering by power density, or area efficiency –  watt per sq ft, we did not have any other criteria for picking the model or the places they can be purchased. Please do feel free to submit your suggestions for us to include other examples. Related reading: Are Solar Panels Going To 300 Watts Soon? | Go Solar Power For Homes Steve Jobs was “Particularly Involved” in iPhone 3.0 Interface … Grid-Neutral with Solar Power? | Renergy Cafe Efficiency or cost per watt – which is most important? High Performance Design — The Next Generation Advantages and Disadvantages of Monocrystalline Solar Panels Understanding Solar Power Panels Six Easy Steps to Estimate Cost of a Solar Power System Open Energy’s SolarSave Roofing Tiles | Solar Feeds News and … Green Car Congress: New Nano-sized Photocatalyst for Artificial …

Open Energy Corp. helps machine shop go 100% solar | Cleantech Group

SolarByTheWatt.Com Solar By The Watt Dot Com

(jump directly to calculation tables)

We want to look at a very simple model of economic efficiency where are we interested in the annual return on investment. A project involving a solar photovoltaic installation requires certain amount of capital to be built and will expect certain amount of annual revenue. The simple indicator of efficiency that we want to study is this annual return on invested capital.

There are more complex models that also include the cost of capital. In a model that studies the cost of the electricity produced for example the cost of capital and factored in return for the investor could be very important factors. Cost of capital on its own can be a complex concept too. Whether the capital is borrowed and the cost will be defined by the interest rate of the loan or is cash participation from the investor and the cost will be defined by other opportunities the investor has to invest in (including risk free investments) or the combination of the two, cost of capital is very significant factor in such models.

We simplify our model to the level of looking at potential return from invested amount of capital. Further investment efficiency study and study on the cost of production of electricity should involve cost of capital.

We will also try to come to tables of calculated efficiency depending on different factors but not the size of the installation. The size of the installation definitely impacts the efficiency of a project. This is the traditional concept of economy if scales. A larger project will be expected to be more efficient over all because of the spread fixed expenses that the project has. But we will be building our model around the idea of dollar per watt, dollar per watt peak, so that it is applicable to different. The efficiency that comes from scale can be reflected in the factors going in to our model – specifically cost to build.

Another factor not included in our model is the maintenance cost of the solar installation. We are hoping that the reader can find resources which will indicate dollar per watt peak what the expected cost to maintain the station are.

The factors that expect to influence our model are: cost to build the power installation, insolation at the geographic location, electricity market price.

The cost to build the power installation includes:

• the price of the core photovoltaic components employed: modules, panels, arrays (what exactly list of such components we deal with depends on the design and configuration of the installation),
• the price of the mounting equipment (trackers and, or positioning frames) and wiring;
• price of inverters and grid connection equipment
• service and labor cost to assemble
• management and administration costs and costs of permits

The insolation at the geographic location. The insolation is the amount of solar light energy falling on the surface of the earth at a given geographic location per certain amount of area in the span of certain unit of time. More specifically the unit of measure used is watt per square meter (W/m²) or also kilowatt hour per square meter per day (kWh/m²/day). Insolation in Europe, just for reference purposes, approximately, ranges between 1,000 to 2,000 kWh per year per installed kWp, in the continental US – between 800 to 2,100 kWh per year per installed kWp for different regions. Exact numbers can be found in different reference tables and insolation maps on the internet and elsewhere.

In the photovoltaic industry a measure of insolation is employed which helps us more directly figure out how much electricity in kilowatt hours (kWh) we can produced annually from an installed nominal watt (Wp) – that is kilowatt hours annually per installed kWp (kWh/kWp/y).

The market price of the electricity produced. Since we are trying to figure out economic efficiency – annual return on investment we need to involve in the model:

• the price of the electricity we produce and sell to the grid

or conversely

• the price of the amount of electricity we offset that we were otherwise going to pay for at such market price.

In many places in the world – by country or by specific territory (state, other subdivision) there are financial incentives for investors in photovoltaic power stations in the way of a special feed-in-tariff. These usually are higher price the grid pays to energy producers who utilize photovoltaic power stations. If we have to give some examples these countries have the following feed-in-tariffs (unit of measure is Euros per kWh since classically many of the notable incentives started in Europe and that is the currency used there): Austria 0.57 – 0.59, Germany 0.52 – 0.57, Italy, 0.36 – 0.49, France 0.30 – 0.55, Spain 0.19 – 0.44, Switzerland 0.10 – 0.50, Israel 0.14 – 0.16, Bulgaria 0.40.

The formula.

The annual return on investment in a solar power station will be the annual income from sold (or offset electricity) divided by the amount of the investment.

Annual return on investment = annual income ($) / investment amount ($).

The annual income is the market price of the electricity in dollar ($) per kilowatt hour (kWh) times the amount of energy produced in an year in kilowatt hours (kWh).

Annual income ($) = production per year (kWh) x market price ($/kWh)

The production per year is the solar insolation in kilowatt hours per year per kilowatt peak installed times the installed capacity/power in kilowatt peak (kWp).

Production per year (kWh) = insolation (kWh/y/kWp) x installed capacity (kWp) .

So that we can work on dollar per watt basis we will express the investment amount by the investment cost per watt.

Investment amount ($) = total cost per watt ($/Wp) x installed capacity (kWp) x 1,000

– the 1,000 factor  is to adjust the dollar per watt unit to the kWp in which we are measuring the installed power.

So the complete formula for the annual return on investment will be:

Annual return on investment = annual income ($) / investment amount ($)

If we use the formula for the annual income we get:

= production per year (kWh) x market price ($/kWh) / (total cost per watt ($/Wp) x installed capacity (kWp) x 1,000)

If we use the formula for the production per year we come to:

= insolation (kWh/y/kWp) x installed capacity (kW) x market price ($/kWh) / (total cost per watt ($/Wp) x installed capacity (kWp) x 1,000)

Here we can get rid of the installed capacity (kWp) in the numerator and denominator and get to:

Annual return on investment
= insolation (kWh/y/kWp)   x   market price ($/kWh)
/  ( total cost per watt ($/Wp)   x   1,000 )

Let’s use the formula in an example where $7 per watt were spend in the building of the station, the insolation is 1,200 kWh per installed kWp and there is a $0.52 feed-in-tariff for the electricity produced.

Annual return on investment = 1,200 x 0.52 / (7 x 1,000) = 624 / 7,000 = 8.92%.

This calculated rate now can be compared to cost of capital and maintenance cost can be factored in to look for some more complete number of real economic return.

In addition to this formula the following tables can be used to get to approximate numbers:

The first table is given for insolation of 1,000 (this can be easily factored if we know the specific insolation, i.e. for 1,500 we just have to multiply by 1.5, for 2,200 we simply multiply by 2.2, etc.)

The investment cost per watt is given in a very wide range of $3 to $10 per watt but it is not implied that these are possible, practical or easy to obtain prices in reality. Our research shows that large industrial project can reach down to $6 per watt of such cost and smaller commercial and residential projects can go up to $10 and even $15 per watt peak installed.

The price for kWh of electricity is given in a range of $0.05 to $0.60 to reflect different market prices for electric energy and all possible feed in tariffs.

Annual Return on Investment At Insolation of 1,000 kWh/kWp:

Annual Return on Investment At Insolation of  1,500 kWh/kWp:

Annual Return on Investment At Insolation of 2,000 kWh/kWp:

To factor in the cost of capital  in the numbers from these tables one needs to subtract the cost of capital as a percentage. For example if the cost of capital is 4%  that has to be subtracted from the numbers in the tables above. Similar adjustment can be made for to factor in the maintenance costs.

Configuration efficiency, (performance ratio). We do not know whether this term is discussed in other research in length but we want to mention it for this reason: projects with equal labeled peak power – watt peak (Wp), nominal power, if taken directly from the labeled peak power of the modules involved can have different overall output electricity production – kilowatt hour (kWh) per year at the same geographic location. This could be because of how different modules perform when positioned with trackers or mounted stationary, or how well they perform in different cloud conditions etc. etc. So, realistically the nominal installed power (Wp) that can be used with insolation numbers to figure out annual production can be different for different installations mainly because of the type of modules used a the specific conditions (insolation, cloudiness, positioning etc.) For the different projects this factor has to be specifically researched based on data from similar configuration used in existing projects. By information we can get to such factor can vary between 0.75 and 1.4 – i.e. the electricity produced in a year from the installation in kWh may vary from the above calculation for known insolation from –25% to +40% from the indicated.

Related Articles:

Solar Energy Land Area Efficiency or How Many Acres per MW, kWp per Acre

Can Solar Energy Completely Replace Fossil Fuel and Other Sources?

A Short Science Lesson for Journalists – Watts, Kilowatts, Megawatts, Kilowatt Hours

Lowest Solar Panel Prices Per Watt 2009-02-24

Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photovoltaic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insolation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feed-in_Tariff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PV_financial_incentives

First lets look at what we are using currently to meet our energy needs, coal and nuclear energy, and how ecologically damaging they are.

To start, most existing coal plants release many different toxins directly into the air we breathe, from sulfur to lead and mercury. Even the newer plants coming on line, which reduce toxins dramatically, still produce massive quantities of CO2, a greenhouse gas and a direct cause of global warming. Natural gas is far more benign but still produces large quantities of CO2 when used to produce electricity. How much CO2 is released – a 5-kilowatt solar system will prevent the release of nearly 10,400 pounds of CO2 every year for the life of the system. The average home uses 8,000-kilowatt hours per year. A coal power plant producing that much electricity emits about 18,000 pounds of CO2 per year.

When coal is burned, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury compounds are released. For that reason, coal-fired boilers are required to have control devices to reduce the amount of emissions that are released. Mining, cleaning, and transporting coal to the power plant generate additional emissions. For example, methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is trapped in the coal, is often vented during these processes to increase safety.

Secondly, large quantities of water are needed to remove impurities from coal at the mine. These large quantities of water are used for producing steam and for cooling systems. When coal-fired power plants remove water from a lake or river, the fish and other aquatic life can be affected, as well as animals and people who depend on these aquatic resources. At the same time, pollutants build up in the water used by the power plant boiler and cooling system. If the water used in the power plant is discharged to a lake or river, the pollutants in the water can harm fish and plants.

Last, the burning of coal creates solid waste, called ash, which is composed primarily of metal oxides and alkali. On average, the ash content of coal is 10 percent. Solid waste is also created at coal mines when coal is cleaned and at power plants when air pollutants are removed from the stack gas. Much of this waste is deposited in landfills and abandoned mines, although some amounts are now being recycled into useful products, such as cement and building materials.

So, you may say, what about nuclear power? While nuclear power plants do not emit carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, or nitrogen oxides – fossil fuel emissions are associated with the uranium mining and uranium enrichment process as well as the transport of the uranium fuel to the nuclear plant. Nuclear power plants also use large quantities of water for steam production and for cooling. When nuclear power plants remove water from a lake or river, fish and other aquatic life can be affected. Water pollutants, such as heavy metals and salts build up in the water used in the nuclear power plant systems. These water pollutants, as well as the higher temperature of the water discharged from the power plant, can negatively affect water quality and aquatic life.

Waste generated from uranium mining operations and rainwater runoff can contaminate groundwater and surface water resources with heavy metals and traces of radioactive uranium. Every 18 to 24 months, nuclear power plants must shut down to remove and replace the “spent” uranium fuel. This spent fuel has released most of its energy as a result of the fission process and has become radioactive waste.

All of the nuclear power plants in the United States together produce about 2,000 metric tons per year of radioactive waste. Currently, the radioactive waste is stored at the nuclear plants at which it is generated, either in steel-lined, concrete vaults filled with water or in above-ground steel or steel-reinforced concrete containers with steel inner canisters. This waste will remain radioactive for many thousands of years.

As you can see, the more solar power is used, the more it helps our environment. By investing in solar today you are investing in your future and your children’s future and you do this by combating global warming and reduce our nation’s dependence of foreign energy sources. And, you are helping in the reduction of CO2 emissions and protecting clean water sources. It’s amazing how such a small change in one’s life can do so much. ARI Green Energy is a manufacturer of wind generator technologies. Visit them today for a full line of wind turbines and solar technology solutions. Think green.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_830778_45.html

About the Author:  Author: Robert Bell

We want to look at the needs of energy of the United States and the world and compare with the practical size installations of solar power stations needed to replace that.

The question of completely replacing all fossil fuel or all other sources of electricity and other energy is much more complex than just looking at the numbers. Probably replacing the other sources in just electricity production is simpler but still in addition to simply adding capacity, changes of large scale are needed in the national grid configuration.

Replacing resources used to produce other energy, other than electricity, is even more complex. That will mean changing how energy is being transported and used. While electricity is a type of energy easy to transport what may  need to be changed is the way it is utilized at the end consumer – industrial, residential or transportation. That will involve changes and costs again more than the ones related to replacing the source with solar power stations.

The current electricity generation capacity in the US is about 1TW (1,000,000 MW). About 395 GW (1GW = 1,000 MW) is from natural gas, 315 GW from coal, 100 GW from nuclear, 100 GW from hydroelectric 56GW from oil products, 30 GW from renewables  other than hydro, and other small components.

We will look at these numbers separately to see what it will take to replace the more urgent ones of them – coal, oil etc.

The US total energy consumption, not just electricity is 3.5 TW. Most of the difference between just electricity and this number is made up of energy produced from oil so we are not going to try to break this down. We will look at this as one of our theoretical targets.

The world total energy consumption is at around 16 TW of which 4.5TW is electricity.

So, lets build a scale of the different stages that theoretically can be achieved in solar replacing other energy sources.

For our calculations we will assume installation / construction cost for one 1MW of $5m. This is a number ($5/Wp) we think smaller than the recent historic numbers for cost to install solar capacity. But we want to factor for future falling prices of solar modules and other components and overall improving efficiency in the industry. Anyone is free to factor the $ numbers we have if they believe $7/Wp or $10Wp is a better number.

For surface area needs we will assume 200 kW per acre. With different design and technology 800kW per acre is possible but we will go with the low number on this to be on the safe side. Since 1 sq mile is 640 acres, with our assumption we will have 128 MW per sq mile.

We tried to display this comparison between energy currently produced by different sources and capacity needed in solar in gigawatts (GW), cost of  installation in billion dollars ($bn), land area needed in sq. miles, marks of different countries GDP, and land areas of different geographic locations (certain US states in this case).

Click here or on the graph below to see it in full scale.

On the above diagram, since it uses a linear scale for the capacity, cost and land and the large values (world energy needs) are much larger than the smaller ones (oil and coal for electricity in the US), the small values are not given a good presentation. So here we put the same numbers on a logarithmic scale for the solar capacity, cost and land requirements. We have much better clarity on the comparisons now for the smaller values.

Click here or on the graph below to see it in full scale.

We think in general our study is much more important in reference to the smaller values. They deal with some levels of scale of capacity that are practically easier to achieve in terms of replacing with solar. We are talking about the unquestionably very polluting coal and oil burning for electricity. Again – look at the numbers to replace oil products used for electricity generation in the US we only need $280b and spending that will create jobs, help growth in technology and give all sorts of other economic and social benefits.

The numbers given in our study in reference to the higher levels – world electricity and total energy consumption are simply for getting a better view of the comparative size of all levels.

Related Reading:

Solar Energy Nanotechnology Can Replace Fossil Fuels – SF Chronicle

Argument: Abundant solar energy can replace fossil fuels and slash emissions

Replacing fossil fuels: the scale of the problem

Alternative Sources of Energy Can Help to Save Our Planet

The potential of solar energy for replacing fossil fuels

newnet news – Scalable electric power from solar energy

Can alternative energy effectively replace fossil fuels

Solar Power – Europe Rallies Behind Nanotechnology To Wean World From Fossil Fuels

Resources:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epa_sum.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_use_in_the_United_States

http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/ieoecg.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_area

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_outlying_territories_by_area

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_areas_by_population

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

SolarByTheWatt.com

Please use the comments form on this story to let us know what you know about:

• each of the different certificates or listing UL, CE, IEC, TUV, others
• in what cases they are required
• what do they mean in general or specific terms
• provide links to relevant sites (including yours)
• also please ask questions that other may be able to answer

SolarByTheWatt.com is going to keep all relevant comments on and agregate the information in an addtitional story based in the comments and possibly more information gathered by us.

Thank you!

SolarByTheWatt.com

Begin by establishing exactly how much of your home’s total energy usage you want to be run on solar power. Do you want solar power merely to heat the water and the water-heating system? Do you want to go completely off-grid and power the whole house by solar power? Either way, you’ll need to know how much energy your home is consuming per month on average.

Using your monthly utility bills, calculate your home’s average energy usage. Note any peak times when you use radically more energy. The Christmas period can cause surprisingly heavy energy demands. In essence, you need to design your solar power system to cope with your home’s maximum energy demand.

Once you have these figures, I recommend multiplying the amount by at least 1.5. This will give you a working leeway for any extra appliances you might add to your home over time. Now you know how much solar energy you need to pull in from the sun, you also have an idea of the amount of solar panels you will need to buy.

I would advise you to buy solar panels online. Go to Ebay and input the words “solar panel pallet”. You’ll probably get an amazing bargain there. Prices have dropped dramatically recently. For an average family house, you can probably buy enough panels to power your home for less than $15,000.

Get good quality skilled and experienced tradesmen to do the job. Again, look online or check your local phone book. Always get at least three quotations. Cost is central, but it is very important that they have previous experience in installing solar power for homes.

Once you have someone you can trust at a good price, discuss with them which inverter to get and how much that will cost. Solar panels harness the power from the sun and turn it into direct current (aka DC power). The inverter converts this DC current into alternating current, (aka AC power). Everyone who installs solar power for homes needs to buy an inverter. Just about everything in your home runs off AC so your inverter is essential.

A good inverter will cost about $2,000. Add another $500 or thereabouts for installation. Inverters have a lifespan of about 10 years, while solar panels, if looked after, will last 25-30 years. So you’ll probably need to replace your inverter over time.

If you want to go completely off-grid, you’ll need to store your excess energy in good quality batteries to store excess solar power harnessed on sunny days. That way, you’ll have a reserve of power to run your household appliances on darker days and at night-time. They cost about $50 – $100 each for the deep-cycle types. You’ll need about 10 of them. New batteries generally need replacing every 3-5 years.

Typically, your installation costs shouldn’t be much more than $10,000. However, installation costs depend on a variety of factors. How is your roof constructed? Steep roofs or Spanish tiles cost more to install as the panels need to be properly secured. Yet further cost goes into ensuring leak-proof seals in these roofing systems.

Installing solar power normally doesn’t need much electrical work to set up. Older houses may require additional rewiring, though this is rarely extensive. Nevertheless, have a qualified, experienced electrician check all the wiring.

Don’t forget to look for government support. Most local governments around the world are offering major tax credits. Your utility company might also have incentives to offer. These can all add up to as much as 50% of the total cost.

Final point – if you are investing in solar power for homes, it makes sense to protect your new asset. Ask your insurance advisor to add this to your homes and contents policy. Adding your new solar power system to your homeowner insurance policy won’t cost you more than $100 per annum. This will protect the investment you’ve made on your house. An additional $100 per year to cover your $40,000 solar system against any disaster really is an absolute bargain!

Look on your solar power system as a long-term investment. Each step of the installation process should be taken carefully. To remind yourself of the value of your investment, ask yourself, “What is the payback time?” Of course, after it’s all paid off, you have free electricity for years to come.

Consider if you were to take a loan to finance your solar power for homes system. Although it may seem like a hefty initial outlay, the monthly payments will probably be less than your current utility bill. So all ways up you’re saving money.

Of course saving money is not the only reason it makes good sense to install solar power for homes. It’s good to know that you are reducing your carbon footprint. Thereby your children and their children can inherit a planet worth living in. That’s the very least you can do for them, don’t you agree?

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As a travel magazine editor and publisher, a life coach and trainer, Sam Deane has seen the world. Nowadays, he dedicates most of his free time to maintaining the well-being of this precious, miraculous planet on which we live. Sam runs an important and lively blog about solar power. http://www.gosolarpowerforhomes.com

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_766371_27.html

Author: samdeane author www.articlealley.com