So let's do little math. We'll assume that the electric utility will buy back electricity at the same rate that you pay for it and that the boat has 400W of solar panels on board. If the boat is really idle, then it might generate 2 kWh on a good day. Then the day is worth 34 cents. Multiply this by 30 days (assuming perfect weather and no usage of the boat) and in a month the boat will have earned it's owner $10 in electric generation by providing 60 kWh back into the grid.
Looking at the assumptions, Southern California credits grid tie energy at 1 to 1 against electricity used from the grid, they do it with one meter and spin it backwards when you're providing energy into the grid. Months with negative readings get rolled over, but won't carry over from one year to the next. The billed total cannot go below 0 kWh in the 12 month cycle related to the specific meter. A standard connection must still be paid monthly. So the best case scenario is that the utility bill would drop to the connection fee and no charges for electricity would be billed over the course of a year.
I don't know of many people with 400W of panels on their boat, certainly less than 1% of the boats in our marina (with 6000 slips, it's the largest non-commercial boat marina in the world). I would be surprised if 10% could generate 1 kWh of excess electricity on a good day. So its more likely that only 10% of the boats could provide about 30 kWh/month to the grid. My 2 bedroom house averages less than 20 kWh per day including A/C in the summer time. I don't think that my winter usage ever falls below 10 kWh/day. So if 10 over-paneled boats signed up, they could cover my winter usage, it would take 20 boats to cover my annual average.
I think that problem with this idea is the scale, there's a lot of infrastructure and ongoing management to invest for a relative small return. I doubt that the utility company would consider the program worth the effort.
Fair winds,
Eric
Marina del Rey, CA
--- In electricboats@
>
> I think that B2G tech in a marina is a great idea. I could imagine a model that has some potential for my marina.
>
> My current marina has individual meters at each dock box. We pay the hefty commercial rate for power. I want to say 17 cents per kWH. We don't pay the utility company though. We pay the marina for power and they are the ones who pay the utility company bill....
> By the way, my marina is applying for some kind of "green marina certification" I think there is probably a state subsidy behind this so they may have motivation.
>
> Hans
No comments:
Post a Comment