Ontario's Power Authority's microfit program - Acting in bad faith against the environment and the economy?

Ontario's Power Authority microfit Program

We started up a microfit program late in 2013.  As a home owner, we were limited to 10 kW on the DC side.  As an engineer, who worked in the old Ontario Hydro system, that makes absolutely NO sense to me to limit the DC side of a Photo Voltaic System with a 10 kW AC restriction in place already.  With 3% inverter loses, 2% line loses, 3% panel burn in during the first week and an overall 20% reduction in 20 years; you will start with a 9.2 kW microfit and end up with a 7.5 kW microfit in 20 years.  In addition, the panels themselves are over rated based on ideal dream conditions that seldom if ever occur.  With two 5 kW AC to DC inverters in place, you simply can't produce more than 10 kW AC period.  It didn't start out that way.  Some one changed it.  Who is acting (again) in bad faith?

IMPORTANT UPDATE: SEE JUNE 2015 POST ON KILLING OUR OCEANS NOW

Let me explain.

Green Energy Program:

This world is in Big sh## with the C02 levels currently around the 400 ppm mark.  For a healthier planet, a level of 350 ppm is the target.  Almost all home operated microfit, roof mounted systems use solar panels based on silicon wafer technology.  We must try to control CO2 emissions for the sake of the future populations and generate as much electricity possible from non-carbon based systems.  It has been my observations, that few people are interested in doing this.

As we must or want to have electricity to use, I am against closing our already built coal fired stations.  There is a large C02 foot print to build these systems and they should be used until it is no longer economical to do so.  China is building a large coal fired electrical system, so what is the point.  Perhaps, don't build any more but it makes good sense to use what we already have invested in to its maximum.  The exhaust gases could be cleaned up as is economically practical.  They don't have that many years left to run anyway.  You might then want to put in natural gas, wind and solar on these sites.

Benefits of Solar Panel Systems:

Of the green energy programs, solar energy is one, if not the best renewable energy sources available.

1.0  Solar energy from the the sun is free (input only).

2.0  Solar energy produces no harmful C02 gas emissions or waste products like nuclear energy.

3.0  Roof mounted solar panels do not take up any valuable agricultural land like wind and big power stations.

4.0  All most all home owners could install some solar panels

5.0  No birds have ever died from flying into solar panels, unlike large wind turbines

6.0  Solar panels blend into the natural roof of a house and extend the roof's life by keeping it cooler and shading it from UV radiation.  Thus they also help to keep your attic cooler and lowering your Air Conditioning requirements.

7.0  Solar panels produce energy during the peak energy periods of the day, thus helping the power company to meet the demand at the most expensive period to do so.

8.0  Solar panels systems have a long life span, of 25 to 50 years.

9.0  Existing power plants are reaching their life expectancy of the plants.  Building in capacity now makes good sense.
10.0  The economy:  If we have not DC limit, only the AC limit, the Ontario Manufacturers can make more panels and means more jobs in the industry period.

11.0  Generating  sites are among the power users.  No environmental approvals required.  Best location possible for generating sites.

Production Problems with Solar Panels:

When trying to harvest solar energy from the sun, there are many factors that work against you.  Here are some of them.

1.0  Sun light for only 30-40 % of the day.

2.0  Storing energy for use during non-solar periods. Very costly.

3.0  Any fouling of the panels from: bird droppings, over head tree shading, structure shading from other buildings, snow; ice fouling.

4.0  Reduced output during higher temperature days

5.0  Weather related, clouds passing by, over cast days, rain days, weather in general.

6.0  Pitch of your roof is not normally designed for maximum solar collection.

7.0  Very low solar harvesting for 6 months of the year as the days grow short and the sun dips low on the horizon. 

8.0  Interference from high clouds and dust, S04 particles from volcanoes - Reduces light concentration.

9.0  Smog

10.0 Morning frost in winter fouls panels during startup

11.0  Seasonal attitude and angle of light hitting the panels.  There is a large variance over the year.

12.0 House roof alignment not south facing

13.0 Neighbors trees shading roof.

14.0 Poor system design using straight string inverters

15.0 Poor panel design not producing power from good cells when others are fouled

16.0 Perfectly clear skies, cool temperatures where used to set the STC for the panel's rating.  These are seldom ever seen in the field and never after 1 month of operation due to panel burn in losses.
17.0  Wind speed above 20 mph cause tracking systems to shut down or lay flat.
18.0  Poor access in winter for any maintenance if required.
19.0  Replacement maintenance of DC/AC inverters after 12 years of use.

All of the above factors make it difficult to harvest solar energy.  Why has some one limited the home owners ability to produce the maximum energy that they could with the 10 kW AC programs.  We few must harvest as much as possible for those many who don't give a damn about the global warming problem.

The obvious design solution is to install more panels on the DC side to offset these conditions which the DC limitations prevent you from doing. 

The original contracts DID NOT have this stupid restriction and paid 85.5 cents per kW hour.  Jumping to the next level under the Fit program, it has a 500,000 kW restriction, so very few people would be limited on their DC side.  These are big businesses and institutions.

The home owner loses again. 

 Home owners are prevented from utilizing a standard in electrical generation called efficiency of scale or size.  Here you might say, size does matter.  There is also no rate adjustment over the 20 years.  The contract and restrictions is 100% one sided.

Compared with conventional electrical generating systems, solar panel systems have a horrible capacity factor rating well below 10%.  Normally you want your power plant to have a capacity factor above 80% and as high as you can get it.  Capacity factor is output over output 24x7x365

Now having lowed the tariff rate to 39.6 cents per kW hour, my bank reports no new applications to be used for microfit.  

Discussion:

The first question is why the 10 kW limit?  We should be able to feed back into the grid from a 200 Amp service over 30 kW of energy.  But let us leave that for now and stay with the 10 kW limit.

Solar energy production starts at first light and increase to a maximum output for the day in an inverse bell curve.  You may peak about 9 kW for less than 1 hour per day for most of the year.  It is impossible to reach and maintain 10 kW AC under these conditions, never mind maintaining it for several hours.  Your inverters will Always prevent you from exceeding 10 kW.  So why is the home owner being deliberately discriminated against?

Some one decided to not only limit this to 10 kW but to add an additional restriction of 10 kW on the DC side.  As a design engineer, if you asked me to design a system to produce 10 kW AC, I would install panels on the south, east and west facing sides of a house.  I would want the system to produce 80% of maximum after 2hrs..  In order to do so, I would most likely have to have 15 to 20 kW of panels on the DC side, if not more installed in the system.  I would also add future panels to adjust for the natural decay in output from these panels.  Of course, most people do not have large enough roofs for a perfect system and few have the proper roof orientation of a South facing roof.

My house feeds 4 other neighbors who are NOT harvesting solar energy (shame on them).  I believe that less than 1% of house holds in Ontario do this.  Therefore, those who do should be able to help to fill in the gap.  The few must help the many to reduce C02 levels.

It is not logical or beneficial to the planet to limit your production to 10 kW on the DC side.  On the AC side my two 5 kW inverters automatically limit my ability to produce at any anyone time no more than 10 kW AC so why impose this hardship.  We have already had to adsorb the very low tariff rate of 39.6 cents per kW hr.  The first people got 85 cents with no DC limit but had higher panel costs.

People have jumped on the solar panel band wagon and for the most part, tried to squeeze as much money from the home owner as possible.  Cost of building permits based on the number of panels (?),  engineering assessment for a relatively new building using trusses is not warranted.  A hugely ridiculous $1500 + HST connection fee from Hydro-One. Hydo-One's connection cost is the same that I paid for 1875 W of solar panels.  That is almost 20% of the cost of my solar panels!  Other utilities are charging around $200 mark.  The price of panels has fallen but the installation and fixed costs remain about the same. 

If you would like to try to change things, then write your concerns to the Ontario Energy Board.  The more suppliers and customers give their feedback, the better are the chances to change things.  By limiting the 10 kW microfit to 10 kW DC, the Ontario industry is hurt badly by decreased production of 20-50%.

Ask:  Why is the Ontario Power Authority microfit home owner being discriminated against by these policies and the larger Fit customers are not?  Our kW's directly feed other customers without any appreciable line loses.