Posted on 12/04/2013 4:48:43 PM PST by matt04
Electricians in bright yellow coats have been tending to rows of solar panels in recent days, patching together a complex network of equipment that will be the largest of its kind in the state when it's completed in about a month.
But the project — dedicated Friday at a gathering of company and public officials — won't hold the top spot forever. A project four times the size of the Somers solar center that is planned in Sprague will knock it to second when it comes online in three years.
These massive projects, as well as the thousands of smaller-scale installations on commercial sites and residential rooftops, are signs that solar is finding a welcome home in Connecticut. Prices are dropping. Availability is expanding. And the investments, by energy companies like Dominion, seem to be making sense.
"We will do 10 times the in-state renewables in 2013 than was being done in 2010, before Gov. [Dannel] Malloy took office," energy Commissioner Dan Esty said in an interview, adding that those renewables are largely solar and fuel cells.
...
"This is what happens when you have good government working with industry," Somers First Selectman Lisa Pellegrini said Friday to a gathering of townspeople, Dominion employees and state and federal lawmakers.
About 50 of the project's 100 acres are covered with 23,150 Kyocera solar panels, and Dominion executives say there is potential to grow. The panels are anchored to a metal bracing attached to a motor that tilts the panels throughout the day to maximize efficiency.
(Excerpt) Read more at courant.com ...
Lots of bright sunshine there in sunny Connecticut...
I see a lot of quotes about "good government," when they are writing checks, and tax credits and such, but nothing on forecasted income from actual electricity generation. It looks like it was designed to generate accounting gimmicks.
Looks like 100 acres of former pasture... wasted. I would have opted for the sirloin... and put the solar panels on the roof of the barn.
Dominion would have done a better job!
Looks like 100 acres of former pasture... wasted. I would have opted for the sirloin... and put the solar panels on the roof of the barn.
NO NO NO
You put up something that looks like covered parking but 20ft in the air all over the pasture, but covered with solar cells that are semi-transparent.
You then feed all that power to batteries so you can light the whole area during the night so you can grow MORE grass and support more cows per acre!!!!
More Steak!!!! Mmmm Steak!
Dominion would have done a better job! Possible so, Grace, but when you good naturedly goose them... 
they lose all concentration!
http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ds9iggy.jpg
Does it produce electricity when it is covered with snow?
Choke. Threatening industry, maybe.
Connecticut's climate DOES NOT SUPPORT SOLAR INVESTMENT BY INDUSTRY OR TAXPAYERS!
http://youtu.be/acF2f3XLfCo?t=1m44s
There is only ONE Damar.
who cleans them off of dust,’dirt, snow, and repairs them from hail and falling ice damage?
made’nice field’and pasture area useless.
How often and at what cost do these things require cleaning?
The irony of a bad hail storm destroying thousands of solar panels and sending them to the landfill, all in the name of “green” would be ironic.
I have head of people whit solar pales on their houses cleaning them weekly to work effectively.
one university built a big field of them around the east side of milwaukee, where lots of tv transmitter towers are.
falling ice off the towers took out a decent percentage of them.
lotsa extra water and cleaners to do this.
Really.
These breathless enthusiasts are universally so ignorant, that it should be a criminal offense.
Specially since they are spending taxpayer money over a long time, not their own.
The problem is that solar panel costs are for the basic new panels, which run in efficiency between 15 and 20%. Dirt, dust and mineral deposition degrade efficiency by up to 30% (to 11-14%,) depending on local conditions.
Panels with hi-tech coatings just increase the time of reasonable return to ridiculous values, and cleaning them the traditional way would almost break even --- energy produced will simply pay for the cost of maintenance.
NOT cleaning them is worse; the degradation of efficiency is cumulative.
A classic example : When Georgetown University decided to build a fancy "showpiece" solar facility. By 1993 when I first saw it, it was still a "showpiece," but it played no role whatsoever in the energy management of the building (as an engineer, I asked lots of questions) because it delivered net negative savings due to upkeep and maintenance. It was turned off. And the taxpayer dollars spent on the great idea, would never be amortized.
Georgetown "Solar" ICC Building
I seriously doubt anything has changed since 1993. Just bore creative accounting, perhaps, like federal money is from the money fairy, and thus free.
Building a solar plant in CT is like building a marina in the Sahara.
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