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Hybrid Vehicles Hybrids - News, Reviews and Views in the Press
567 messages, Last post on Oct 30, 2009 at 9:21 PM
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Replying to: tpe (Aug 01, 2007 6:46 pm) We did look at household energy bill savings when planning the PV just like we looked at gas-pump savings when buying our hybrid but money savings were not the only factors. We got the hybrid mainly for its emission. I almost went for a Prius except it could not meet our needs. The PV was for independence from PG&E, for doing our part as long time Sierra Club members  , and it is also part of our "emergency" planning in earthquake country. Whenever a plug-in appears for a reasonable price, we are ready .
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Replying to: gagrice (Aug 02, 2007 6:12 am) That is 10,000 panels and if each is 185W, at 85% efficiency (limited by inverters and CA law if in CA), that is still 1,572,500 W of power! That is a 1000 KWh or 1MW system! Enough to light up a small village. 185W panel is popular in residential installation, some go as low as 145W. I know PG&E gets nervous when residential installation goes beyond 20KW and they really get nervous when it hits 30KW grid-tied because it could impact their transformers and power lines with such a load. For a 1MW system, it would rate as commercial, most likely completely stand-alone. Anyway, I digress from the EV discussion, sorry! 
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Replying to: cdptrap (Aug 02, 2007 9:11 am) I'm totally unfamiliar with it. |
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Replying to: tpe (Aug 02, 2007 6:38 am) |
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Replying to: kdhspyder (Aug 02, 2007 11:43 am) Our 9KW is grid tied without battery back-up or storage. All excess power feeds to the grid and we trade credits with our power company, PG&E. During peak hours, we get 3W credits for every 1W sent to the grid. During non-peak hours, it is a 1 for 1 trade. Power companies do not want battery back-up power feeding back into the grid when the grid is down and being repaired. This unexpected juice can injure or kill a worker working on the line. So a properly installed battery power back-up for a grid-tied system will always cut off grid feed before coming on-line. Battery back-up is also limited so it is not useful to feed any back into the grid. Whatever is not used will just remain in the batteries. In our case, if we own a plug-in and charge it at night, it will draw power from PG&E. Our day time PV credits will pay for that usage. In the day, it will charge using our PV power. If our PV cannot generate enough to meet demand, it will automatically draw from the grid to make up the difference. Again, we just pay for it using our credits. Hope this answers your question?
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Replying to: cdptrap (Aug 02, 2007 4:47 pm) |
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Replying to: cdptrap (Aug 02, 2007 4:47 pm) |
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Replying to: cdptrap (Aug 02, 2007 4:47 pm) |
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Replying to: gagrice (Aug 01, 2007 7:37 pm)  In regard to the tax incentive, I would suggest that it really has almost NO impact on YOUR wallet, when you put it in the context of the tax incentives and breaks given all over the board to big corporations and other entities. There are billions of dollars in tax incentives that are taken advantage of by various entities and special interest groups such as tobacco and big oil. When you take the piddling little tax incentives that are given for hybrid cars (that are dropping to almost zero as we speak) as a percentage of the whole, it probably costs you something less than a penny each tax year. To be honest the Feds support of alternative technologies is pretty pathetic. The influences of big oil and the automakers (who generally would rather not produce hybrids, and only do so, grudgingly, to increase their fleet overall MPG ratings) and a currently very fiscally conservative (at least when it comes to alternative fuels) government means that very little public funding (tiny slivers of a percentage of the total expenditures) is going to hybrids or similar cars. If I were to pick a battle to fight, I would go after the tax incentives given to big oil to do "research" when their profit margins are well over 100%, and their gross bottom line is in the billions of dollars. Without getting any more long-winded, if you consider the couple of thousand-dollar tax breaks on a few thousand hybrids in the context of a Federal Budget that is approaching 3 TRILLION dollars (the budget comes out of your pocket, among other places), the cost to you as an individual is miniscule to the point of disappearing. That is incredibly short-sighted on the Feds' part. As fossil fuels become increasingly scarce, and the demand for them increases, it will not be very long before the high price of these fuels will impact our economy and the economies of the countries around the world. A crappy economy directly results in tax revenue streams that become trickles. Revenue streams drying up means the feds can't do what they're supposed to do. Shock waves go through the economy. Hiways get crappy. Petrochemical companies, shipping companies, travel, power, and everything else gets even more expensive. Soon, the economy craters... Nope. A piddling little tax incentive for a hybrid car doesn't make much difference to you. If anything, more incentives should be put in place to get people out of their Yukons and into their Prius'..... (BTW, I don't own a Prius..I own a Nissan Hybrid)....
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Replying to: hiwayman (Aug 03, 2007 2:50 pm) Excellent post. |
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