Wind Power For Dummies by Ian Woofenden

Author:Ian Woofenden
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Education
ISBN: 9780470496374
Publisher: For Dummies
Published: 2009-09-16T23:00:00+00:00

Looking at a solar-electric system's longevity, reliability, and simplicity

Photovoltaic (PV) modules are remarkable devices. I challenge you to find another consumer product with a 25-year warranty. If your PV module isn't producing 80 percent of its rated output (maximum output in ideal conditions) 25 years after you buy it, any of the major manufacturers will make you whole, providing module capacity to bring your array back up to spec. All the major manufacturers offer this warranty.

And manufacturers typically expect a product to last twice as long as the warranty period. People have experienced this in real life with crystalline PV modules. Imagine buying a product that can give you 50 years of electricity at a fixed upfront cost.

Now imagine that the product will do it reliably, giving you virtually no trouble and little maintenance. In my 25 years of using wind and solar electricity, my PV modules have just sat on the roof doing their job. I wash them a few times a year, but other than that, I've had no involvement. In the same time period, I've had multiple wind generator failures, and my machines have all needed regular maintenance.

Batteryless grid-tied PV systems are even simpler than batteryless grid-tied wind-electric systems (see Chapter 9). The major components, as Figure 11-1 shows, are few:

PV array

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