THESE NUMBERS DON’T MAKE SENSE
A story from the Long Beach PressTelegram heralding the installation of a solar array at the Long Beach Convention Center says this:
-It is estimated the array will save up to 705 Kilowatts of energy, or $7,800 per year…The city is footing $7 million for the array's purchase and installation, roughly half of which will be refunded by Southern California Edison through their Self-Generation Incentive Program…
Even WITH the tax break, but certainly without it, that doesn’t look like its worth the investment. 1000 YEARS to pay itself off? Those numbers can’t be right, can they?
posted by Herman K. Trabish @ 6:56 AM
1 Comments:
If they mean that the array will save 705kW*hr/year, then the $7.8K would add up to 9 cents/kW*hr. I suppose that seems reasonable. I sure wish reporters would get educated to the point where they know the difference between energy and power.
But $7M for an array which generates 705kW*hr/year?!?! That's less than 2kW*hr/day!! A large home system puts out ~2500W peak, so it could produce 2kW*hr in about 2 hours. AND you could "git 'er dun" for less than $20,000 worth of parts BEFORE tax credits, rebates etc. See http://www.hollowtop.com/cls_html/solar_power.htm as an example.
Something is really wrong either with the Long Beach setup, or with the numbers the reporter printed. I know it's expensive to get anything done at a convention center, but this is ridiculous!
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