Arthur E. Sowers is a resident of Harbeson.
Most commercial quantities of solar power come from two kinds of installations. They are: 1.) rooftop solar panels on homes or businesses or in businesses’ parking lots; and 2.) “farms” with large arrays built on acreage amounts of land. As a practical factor, in one internet search I did, I learned that Delaware averages about 200 days of full sunlight a year. So, for cloudy days, one needs battery backup and some kind of regulatory control circuitry to switch loads from solar to grid. This letter is about a third category that I will call “small temporary setups.”
Small, hobby-sized solar-powered garden lights and other gadgets have been available for years. Some garden lights have batteries that get recharged in the daytime, with solar cells on top. The benefit they give is that you don’t need wiring to make them work. You just shove a “peg” into the ground. You cannot generate much power this way, beyond lighting. However, “not-so-small temporary solar setups” have already been commercialized in several European countries, starting around 10 years ago. There are almost a million setups. They can deliver enough power to feed larger appliance loads and compete with the local commercial power grid. The Wikipedia article titled “Balcony solar power” explains one category of setup. Now, in this country, California has a law going into effect next year for so-called “balcony solar.” In Europe, almost 1 million “Balkonkraftwerk” kits have been installed, starting years ago. This article explains it: “How does Plug-in-PV in Germany work?” Here is a KQED article about how that will go into effect in this country: “California Officially Legalizes Balcony Solar, Opening the Market to the New Technology.” More background information is in this Solar Rights Alliance article: “Plug-In Solar is coming to California.”
The idea is that apartments with south-facing balconies can hold several hundred watts worth of simple solar panels hung over the railings of attached patio balconies. There may be few high-rise apartments on our Delmarva Peninsula, but homeowners can look at their back porches and backyards to see how much daytime sun shines on any given area.
Add to that, I think any “setup” that is neither mechanically fastened to a house nor permanently connected to the wiring in any way would not violate laws, electrical codes, contracts, insurance considerations or other such issues. Thus, you could run power — using an extension cord and separately from house wiring — to loads up to near the maximum your setup can deliver.
My greatest justification for building such a setup for myself and my wife involved preparing for emergency needs, such as during storm-caused power outages that can last days, especially in cold weather. Grid breakdowns also take place, as components age and parts wear out. Further, in our turbulent era, terrorism, vandalism, sabotage and hacking over the internet could also interrupt power, directly or indirectly, in ways difficult to predict. And they are getting some of this now, in Europe. They think it is from Russia and Iran. This Wikipedia article gives an overview of a growing problem: “Electrical grid security in the United States.” This Wikipedia article reviews a specific 2013 assault rifle attack on a California power grid substation: “2013 Metcalf sniper attack.” A quote from that article: “The attack, in which gunmen fired on 17 electrical transformers, resulted in more than $15 million worth of equipment damage.”
Also on the market are portable battery power stations. They are also called power supplies or power cubes. Most have low-maintenance lithium batteries and built-in inverters to convert battery direct current into grid-type alternating current. They are all recharged by plugging into your house wiring. Some have provisions for solar charging. Small units can keep your low-power lights and digital devices going for days. Earlier this year, we had a storm-induced multiday outage, and it was very nice to have even the small amount of power we had over zero power. I now have one fairly large unit that can run a refrigerator for one day or my well pump intermittently. It lists for about $700. I plan to expand on this.
For emergency backup, you would use solar panels if a power outage was longer than what would be covered by your battery capacity. Gas and propane generators are also popular, but they have their own problems (carbon monoxide, noise and flammables), and my nightmare is Murphy’s Law, which says that, when you need the generator, that is the time when it won’t start.
Calculating the time needed to reach economic payback would depend on switching some of your loads from the power grid to your own solar “setup.” My grid supplier sells me a kilowatt-hour for about 15 cents. A 100-watt solar panel costing $100 would need 10 hours of full sun to generate 15 cents’ worth of grid power. That is two days. As an ideal outcome, that would work out to about four years to pay for the solar panels. In real life, call it about eight years. If you want to go “full green” electricity — good for you — then a big roof installation is needed, but that will be complicated and need a much bigger budget.
As a benefit to the community, if thousands of homeowners added such supplementary generation to power a fraction of their appliances, then that would take that part of the load off the whole grid. It could eventually add up to a lot.
If you get interested in emergency or supplemental power — or ES power with solar backup along the lines described above — do not run out tomorrow and start buying up things.
You need to do your homework on this. You need to understand basic electricity, polarity issues and some technical terms, and do your arithmetic correctly. You need to balance what you can afford with appliance nameplate specifications for maximum wattage and current.
Lastly, pay attention to developments as they appear in the media or on appropriate specialized websites.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
