Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

wanting to start a small solar farm in Texas need help!

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • wanting to start a small solar farm in Texas need help!

    Ok so I am having some huge delimas.... I inherited it when my father passed away in 2013 and I live in Florida now. I have been looking for companies that would help me with installing it and so on. So far no luck finding someone that will install anything other than on a roof.... I have also talked with a family member in that area that would do all the work if I can't find an installer for what I am wanting. If we end up going this route is there any companies that sell good package deals? Any help would be appreciated!

  • #2
    How big of a farm are you looking to build? Do you plan to sell the electricity to the utility, or are you going to be using it for something?

    Comment


    • #3
      Emartin00 I have 16 acres split between 3 people but intend to fully cover my 5 acres now or little by little just depends on the cost! As far as the electricity the local electric company (TXU) will pay 7.5 cents a killawat.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by anthonyroch View Post
        Emartin00 I have 16 acres split between 3 people but intend to fully cover my 5 acres now or little by little just depends on the cost!
        You are looking at 7 megawatts STC DC if you want to cover 5 acres. That's going to run about 29 million dollars.

        Comment


        • #5
          Jflorey2 is that megawatt hours or what? If it's 29 Mill I definitely couldn't afford that up front. I mean Budweiser pays me good but not that good! LoL and what's the STC mean? I'm completely new to all of this. Just trying to make my property do a little work for me is all!

          Comment


          • #6
            This is funny stuff. A Co-Gen who thinks they will get 7.5 cents per Kwh when in TX you can buy at 4-cents any time of day or night. No one is going to pay you 7.5 cents when they can get all they want for 4-cents.
            MSEE, PE

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by anthonyroch View Post
              Jflorey2 is that megawatt hours or what?
              Megawatts is power. It's how much current and voltage the system produces at any one time.
              Megawatt-hours is energy. It's how much power over a certain time the system will generate.
              If it's 29 Mill I definitely couldn't afford that up front.
              Right; but presumably your investors could. (I assume you're not thinking you'll order some stuff on Ebay and bolt it together here.)
              LoL and what's the STC mean? I'm completely new to all of this. Just trying to make my property do a little work for me is all!
              STC is standard temperature and conditions, which the panel almost never sees.

              What is your goal here? If you want to make your property "do a little work" there are better ways to do that. If you want to reduce your electric bill that's a lot easier.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Sunking View Post
                This is funny stuff. A Co-Gen who thinks they will get 7.5 cents per Kwh when in TX you can buy at 4-cents any time of day or night. No one is going to pay you 7.5 cents when they can get all they want for 4-cents.
                Well Sunking if you find it funny call TXU in Henderson county and you will get told the same thing. I called 3 different times and spoke to multiple people to make sure they said 7.5 cent for every killawat I produced.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Jflorey2 I know megawatt is a power. LoL I guess I should have said would that be produced by an hour under perfect conditions. And I'm not looking for something off Ebay. I'm wanting something from like an actual reputabel seller. I understand there can be better ways but like I said I live in Florida and have the property in Texas.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by anthonyroch View Post
                    Jflorey2 I know megawatt is a power. LoL I guess I should have said would that be produced by an hour under perfect conditions.
                    Saying "how many megawatts per hour are produced" or "will my system produce a megawatt in an hour" are sort of meaningless questions. A system that produces 10 megawatts will generate 10 megawatt-hours in an hour; 20 megawatt-hours in two hours. To figure out how much your system will produce a day:
                    1) Figure out what the system would produce, in AC power, under STC conditions (i.e. total power, inverter efficiency etc)
                    2) Come up with deratings. They will depend on things like temperature, dust, shading etc. You might see additional 10-40% losses here.
                    3) Figure out equivalent direct sun hours a day.

                    That will give you a rough estimate of energy per day.

                    And I'm not looking for something off Ebay. I'm wanting something from like an actual reputabel seller. I understand there can be better ways but like I said I live in Florida and have the property in Texas.
                    Again - what is your goal?

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      So I'm curious as to how you managed to figure the amount of Megawatts my property would produce and how much it would cost.. like previously stated I am new to this and love the idea of green energy. The area back home get 4.8 hours of direct sunlight a day according to the weather info I found broke down by zip code. I have found complete grid tie kits you put together for just over $1.50 a Watt. Currently I was planning on maybe buying the kit that blue pacific solar sells for 32K which produces 25620 watts.... then maybe slowly expanding. My ultimate goal is to have a steady income and not just be out for property taxes every year. When my dad passed he left stipulations on the property so it's not worth selling it to a family member for near nothing especially if I can make a little change off it.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by anthonyroch View Post
                        Well Sunking if you find it funny call TXU in Henderson county and you will get told the same thing. I called 3 different times and spoke to multiple people to make sure they said 7.5 cent for every killawat I produced.
                        You are not talking about residential grid tied system at 5 to 10 Kw. You are talking commercial Co-Gen operations in TX. Like every other Co-Gen in TX your power is sold on the open market to the lowest bigger. Right now wholesale prices are $30 to $35 Mwh. $75/Mwh is residential Retail Rates.
                        MSEE, PE

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by anthonyroch View Post
                          So I'm curious as to how you managed to figure the amount of Megawatts my property would produce and how much it would cost.. like previously stated I am new to this and love the idea of green energy. The area back home get 4.8 hours of direct sunlight a day according to the weather info I found broke down by zip code. I have found complete grid tie kits you put together for just over $1.50 a Watt. Currently I was planning on maybe buying the kit that blue pacific solar sells for 32K which produces 25620 watts.... then maybe slowly expanding. My ultimate goal is to have a steady income and not just be out for property taxes every year. When my dad passed he left stipulations on the property so it's not worth selling it to a family member for near nothing especially if I can make a little change off it.
                          Did you check to see what you are getting for that 25.6kw package? It does not include any type of racking for a roof or ground mount system. It also does not include any cable, conduit, safety switches or Main AC power panel circuit breaker. So besides racking, the AC power connection, labor costs, installation drawings, permits, environmental survey, etc. you should probably increase that $32k cost to something closer to $2/watt installed. Then think about doing this all again when you decide (if you can) to expand that existing system.

                          You really need to understand what your POCO allows for a co-generator including the maximum size it can produce. I seriously doubt the POCO will allow a system much bigger than 25kw unless you are a Commercial or Industrial customer.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Sunking View Post
                            You are not talking about residential grid tied system at 5 to 10 Kw. You are talking commercial Co-Gen operations in TX. Like every other Co-Gen in TX your power is sold on the open market to the lowest bigger. Right now wholesale prices are $30 to $35 Mwh. $75/Mwh is residential Retail Rates.
                            Yes, exactly. You are talking about being a utility generator. This requires a lot of paperwork, and power purchase agreements from the utility. It's not a simple as throwing up some panels and producing power.
                            You would need to get a solar EPC firm involved to design and build the farm.
                            Most utilities aren't going to allow you to put up solar panels if you don't consume at least the majority of the power on that property.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by anthonyroch View Post
                              So I'm curious as to how you managed to figure the amount of Megawatts my property would produce and how much it would cost..
                              Well, modern solar-PV puts out about 15-20 watts per square foot in full sun. Multiply by area, figure in hours direct sun equivalent, take into account inverter losses and solar panel degradation due to temperature and there you go.
                              like previously stated I am new to this and love the idea of green energy.
                              My suggestion, then, would be to start small. Get a small battery (say 2 GC2 type golf cart batteries) a simple charge controller, an inverter and ~400 watts of solar. This will give you a bit of power to play with during the day. More importantly it will be cheap and when you ruin the batteries (and you will) they will be easy to replace.
                              The area back home get 4.8 hours of direct sunlight a day according to the weather info I found broke down by zip code. I have found complete grid tie kits you put together for just over $1.50 a Watt.
                              I would avoid those.
                              My ultimate goal is to have a steady income and not just be out for property taxes every year. When my dad passed he left stipulations on the property so it's not worth selling it to a family member for near nothing especially if I can make a little change off it.
                              Solar PV is not a great way to make money. Most utilities will not pay you for excess power produced, and even those that do will pay you at avoided cost (a few cents/kwhr.) If supporting the property is your goal, I'd take any money you might have spent on solar and put it into a mutual fund; better return.

                              However if you are living on the property it might make financial sense to get your net consumption down to close to zero. That will give you a fairly good payback time in most places in the US.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X