Said and done - the trees are gone!

After a full week of unshadowed operation is has becoome clear that solar energy is not always as "green" as everybody thinks. Shadow of any kind - even a tiny patch reduces the efficiency so dramatically that every effort to get the panel surface shadow-free is justified.

The reason for that effect is the serialization of cells within a module and the serialization of modules to form a "string" with sufficient input voltage for the inverter. A single solar P-N-element (the "cell") features typically only 0,5 Volts. It takes 60 or so cells to form a "module" creating a typical open-circuit voltage of 30 volts. 12-15 serially connected modules then create a string with 360 to 450 volts input at the inverter. Shadowing only one module or even only one cell within "pulls down" the whole string unless the current is lead through the bypass diodes, which means that the bypassed module is "cut out" effectively for the moment.

In that sense "trees" can be the natural enemy of  the solar entrepreneur.
In my case 4 massive 12-15m pine trees had to be victimized.

The German 9/11

Is it coincidence? This history laden date when an iconic building burst to pieces and nothing was like it was before thereafter. - Im am NOT writing about the Twin Towers - instead the 9th of November in German date format 9.11. is the much celebrated 20. anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Even Google joins the celebrations all about with this Doodle Graphic

Everybody is being asked these days "Where have you been on that day"? and "Do you remember what you did on the 9th of November 1989.
Here is my story:
I worked for AMD at the time in the north German sales office near Hannover - a rather remote outpost on the global perspective of the CPU business. Two weeks before the 11/9 date I made up a visit to see customers in Berlin - not with the faintest idea on what was about to happen.  This meant to fly with one of allowed airlines of the former allied forces, that is you had to fly PanAm or BA through a special air corridor over the East German Communist territory.
So when the breaking news spread on the late evening of the 9th of November, quickly all travel slots to Berlin the next day filled within seconds. I was lucky to hold a valid reservation by pure coincidence on that very next day for Berlin.
So I took my video camera and made a record documenting the day - the 10th of November knowing that history was happening. The mood in Berlin was amazing - the whole City in "festival mode" people celebrating and cheering all about. At the same time it was unreal in a sense, a fairy tale atmosphere, where people felt like "give us a knock - we must be dreaming, it´s just too unbelievable to be true".
In retrospect, I should have brought my still camera as well and I could have taken some really historic pictures in high quality- what I do have is only a shaky VHS video but nevertheless it is a document of the rare luck of being at the right spot the right time.
As I think about it, I might edit out a 3min version and put it on YouTube...

Only logged data is good data

Another upgrade to my new solar panels: A data logger for worldwide live access

A - relatively sunny day in November - 6kg saved carbon oxide!

Check it out at

Live View - Solar Panels "PV - Nienhagen"

For all who really like to know what this graphic really means:

The yellow area shows electric power (Watt produced) over time. At 10h the system has been switched on the first time otherwise it would start at 7h30 am with a nice slope. The "ideal" graph on a really sunny day looks like a gaussian bell curve. The green and red line are the contributions of the two identical module fields, so it is expected that the lines stay always together at about 50% of the total power. At about 12am they divert heavily - this is shadowing. One module field is exposed to a tree shadow which dramatically reduces the production of the whole string. Approx. two hours later the two line begin to merge again, this is when the shadow reaches the second field as well reducing the overall effectiveness.

Now all of this is not new - I knew it would happen and the consequences are quite clear -

The trees must go!

The first million is always the hardest...

The solar panels have successfully been connected to the grid! On their first full day of operation they have produced ca. 6 kWh or 21.6 million watt seconds (or Joule).

It was a rainy day and shadowing trees are not yet removed.

These are the basic parameters

•  Solar inverter SMA 5000TL Bluetooth
• 24x Trina Solar poly 220 Watt peak
• 5.28kWp in Total
• Expected annual production: ca. 4600kWh
  

Photo - Voltaics rocks!

In case you wonder - I decided to switch the blog to english. It is just too much work to edit everything in a local language and in addition in english for the rest of the world. Native tongue is still more inuitive and easy - a gain in convenience. This convenience is then completely lost when you (re)do it again in english.

So now the topic of this blog is the photo voltaic market situation: Germany is the largest photo voltaics market in the world - this should be an astounding fact as most obviously Germany is by far not the sunniest country on the globe and beyond one of the densenst populated ones.
The reason is simple. State regulations guarantee 43 Eurocent net income for every PV kWh produced for the next 20 years. Prices of PV Cells dropped this year much to a much greater extent than anticipated.

This "Gap of profitabilitäy" is a window of opportunity open until the 31st of December this year. With the result that the German PV market is practically sold out for the remainder of the year.
Now I am not just theorizing here.... what you see is my 5.28kWp system being installed. It is expected to produce 4800kWh per year (in Germany, 50degrees north!). These 40 square meters built with Chinese quality (?! a contradiction in terms ?) modules from Trina Solar are enough to produce the consumption of a typical 4 person family.
It feels good to be energy independent in terms that my total electric energy consumption is being produced emission free. And thanks to the green/red (former!) German Goverment and legislation it is quite profitable too. Photovoltaic production is reimbursed in 2010 still with 39 Eurocents but the new Black/yellow Government has already indicated to "rethink" these policies...
Now I simply can´t wait to watch the my own system produce the very first kilowatthour kWh.
Stay tuned....

Ist die Zeit des billigen Heiz-Öls vorbei ?

Es wird kälter und der überraschend niedrige Ölpreis zieht wieder deutlich an. Gut, daß es im Netz eine praktische Seite mit stets aktueller Grafik und unabhänigen Öl-Marktkommentaren gibt.

Wer jetzt noch keinen vollen Tank hat ist wahrscheinlich gut beraten nicht allzu lange zu warten.
Hier dieser wirklich nützliche Link:
Aktuelle Heizölpreise + Kommentare

Juist - Eine Zeitreise

Pferdegetrappel auf dem Kopfsteinpflaster - das dominierende Geräusch auf Juist. Es strahlt Geruhsamkeit aus, eine gewisse Langsamkeit und man fühlt sich um 100 oder 150 Jahre zurückversetzt.

Etwa 8 Minuten(!) Flugzeit von Norden in einer Britten Norman "Islander" konstrastieren stark mit  den 40min "Taxi" Transfer zur Pension mit dem 2-Spänner gegenüber.