Web site estimates solar and wind electricity potential

By Stephanie Tavares

Friday, Feb. 6, 2009 | 2 a.m.

With all the talk lately about reducing carbon footprints and Nevada being the “Saudi Arabia of solar” you might be thinking about buying or leasing a renewable energy system for your home or office.

But Nevadans have little experience in the area of home renewable energy generation, and you might be wondering whether it’s worth the cost.

The National Renewable Energy Lab has created an online tool that might make the decision on installing solar or wind generation a lot easier.

The energy lab recently launched an online application called In My Backyard which it says is capable of estimating solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind electricity capacity for locations across the country. For solar installations it even attempts to estimate the cost of the system (including tax credits) and how long the system would take to pay for itself.

The wind and solar data in the application are based on the system size, location and other variables such as average monthly solar or wind capacity.

It uses a Google Maps interface that uses satellite photos so users can pinpoint where on their property they would like to put a wind or solar system. It then draws data for that location from one of the energy lab’s renewable resource databases to estimate its potential electricity production.

In the spirit of all idealistic but poor renewable energy nerds, I decided to see what kind of potential my house had for solar and wind production.

Mostly, I got a headache.

First, the available data for wind and solar aren’t really alike so it’s difficult to compare the potential of a solar installation with a wind installation.

It’s like comparing apples and asparagus.

Project designer Chris Helm said the lab is going to make the two more similar as it incorporates new cost data into the application.

But even once you have the information, you can’t just print it out — at least not on a Mac. If you click on the “export document” button on the screen, it downloads the page in the form of a bad Microsoft Excel spreadsheet — one that is almost completely unreadable.

It also takes several tries at the same site to get an accurate assessment.

The first time I used the application, it said a generic 3 kilowatt wind turbine in my back yard could generate more than 450 megawatts a year (450,000 kilowatts)

A second and third try came up with a more accurate reading: About 325 kilowatts a year.

But I did get an idea of just how expensive the energy lab thinks these installations are.

A 2 kilowatt rooftop PV system, estimated to cost about $10,640, would cost almost as much as my pickup truck. And that’s after the tax rebates and incentives.

The payback time? About 30 years — right about the time I’m ready for my senior discount at Denny’s.

So no solar PV installations for Casa de Tavares this year.

Come to think of it, a quarter-acre suburban-residential lot isn’t exactly the ideal location for a wind turbine, either — even a small one.

But there is a lot of open parking space near the In Business Las Vegas office.

Installing 15 generic 10 kilowatt wind turbines at a height of 10 meters would generate 5,384 kilowatts a year, according to the energy lab site.

Several companies make relatively inexpensive suburban wind turbines that could generate electricity from the plentiful wind whipping through the parking lot. That might be a more viable option.

The Las Vegas Sun building, where the In Business news department is headquartered, has a lot more rooftop space for solar production, too.

A relatively small 150 kilowatt rooftop solar PV system would cost about $1.2 million after tax incentives.

It would take nearly 50 years — twice the warranty life of a typical solar installation — to pay for itself according to the energy lab application.

Maybe a recession isn’t the right time for that kind of investment.

But it did get me thinking. What kind of renewable energy potential do our government buildings have?

So I plugged in the site of the proposed Las Vegas City Hall, the Nevada Capitol Building and the U.S. Capitol.

Here’s what I got:

• The proposed City Hall site:

Installing 1,000 kilowatts (1 megawatt) of rooftop solar PV would cost about $81 million after rebates, according to the energy lab application. The payback period is about 50 years.

This seems ridiculously high. The custom-built 1 megawatt solar parking structure at Procaps Lab in Henderson cost about $13 million less than that and the price of PV panels has decreased since then.

Wind: Building a set of 10 generic 10 kilowatt wind turbines (10 meters high) on the site would generate 11,869 kilowatts a year (11.8 megawatts).

It seems it’s quite a bit more windy in Las Vegas than Henderson if five fewer turbines can produce twice the amount of electricity.

• The Nevada Capitol Building:

Installing 1,000 kilowatts (1 megawatt) of solar PV across the front of the building (assuming that’s even possible) would cost about $8.2 million after rebates (no tax incentive); payback: 53 years.

One wonders — why so much cheaper than an installation of the same size in Las Vegas?

Installing a group of 10 generic 10 kilowatt wind turbines at 10 meters high along the front entrance would be able to produce about 19,500 kilowatts (19.5 megawatts) a year.

• The U.S. Capitol:

Well, the roofs are completely incompatible for most PV systems. But even if you wanted to install PV on the lawn, you can’t get the data because it’s not available on the energy lab application.

You can get data for installing 10 generic 10 kilowatt wind turbines on the front lawn — you’d get about 2,722 kilowatts (2.7 kilowatts) a year.

So the application isn’t the most reliable, at present. And it might actually serve to scare many people away from renewable energy.

But there are a couple of researchers at the energy lab working hard to improve the application. And after a few tries, it can give you a basic idea of what kind of renewable energy potential your property has.

From there you can talk to the installers and manufacturers about just how much it’s really going to cost you. Some even have cost calculators on their Web sites that have company-specific real time component and labor costs included.

What does this say about renewable energy in America? I’m really not sure.

Many solar proponents say the best way to ease off the fossil fuels is to install home and business-based renewable energy systems that won’t tax the grid or require new transmission lines.

And that all seems very practical — until you look at cost estimates like these.

Suddenly the economies of scale you get from building large utility-scale solar projects near transmission lines makes a bit more sense.

As far as urban and suburban wind power — I guess it depends on noise and views as well as cost. But I don’t doubt that some of the low-cost urban wind turbines entering the market are worth looking at.

• • •

Earth Hour is when people and companies across the globe are asked to turn out the lights for an hour to encourage energy conservation.

According to Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, the city is going dark at 8:30 p.m. March 28 — as is the Strip.

On a Saturday night.

Either this is a call for some awesome theme parties or a really good reason for tourists to stock up on bodyguards and pepper spray.

I’ll be staying home.

In the dark.