CYQG - Solar Farm

[Ruckus]

They are well into the installation of the 100,000 solar panels on 300 acres on the Windsor Airport. I understand the following reports and studies were done:
 Project Description Report
 Construction Plan Report
 Design and Operations Report
 Decommissioning Plan Report
 Noise Study Report
 Natural Heritage Assessment
 Water Assessment Report and Water Body Report  Archaeological Assessment (Stage 1 and 2)
 Heritage Assessment Report

I didn't see any study on how the solar farm might affect aviation.

[rxl]

It's not without precedent. There is an 8.5 megawatt solar farm on CYQT.

[cgzro]

Beats a wind farm and much cheaper to get rid of in 10 years.

[Troubleshot]

Beats a wind farm and much cheaper to get rid of in 10 years.

Until you have to pay for the disposal of the solar panels. Also, expect the solar farm to be there 20+years...same goes for wind.

The technology is there to aim the solar panels in different directions at certain sun angles to prevent a annoying reflections. Same goes for wind turbines and shadow flicker.

The Windsor Solar project have addressed these issues, it is up to the airport authority to bring forth any issues of glare, etc...to the park owners, they have to address it.

Capture.JPG (66.4 KiB) Viewed 2886 times

http://www.samsungrenewableenergy.ca/si ... px%20A.pdf

[Troubleshot]

Glare report Here:

http://www.samsungrenewableenergy.ca/si ... px%20D.pdf

[cgzro]

> Also, expect the solar farm to be there 20+years...same goes for wind.

I can definitely see circumstances where that is true:

http://www.samsungsdi.com/upload/downlo ... inal_E.pdf

[lazyeight]

It's not without precedent. There is an 8.5 megawatt solar farm on CYQT.

I never noticed.

That's how much it doesn't matter.

[teacher]

I wonder how much subsidies the Windsor airport is getting out of this. Probably make more money collecting Ontario government tax dollars as green energy subsidies than money they get as an airport

[Gorgons]

https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2012/ ... questions/

Easy clean-up? Profitable? Seems somebody doesn't think its so green or good for the bank account.

[Troubleshot]

I wonder how much subsidies the Windsor airport is getting out of this. Probably make more money collecting Ontario government tax dollars as green energy subsidies than money they get as an airport

In this case I assume the airport authority owns all the land the farm is built on. Land owners do not get government subsidies directly, they basically get a cut (%) from the park owner/operators total production based on KW/h's produced. Normally there is a lease agreement with the land owners and the park owners for say 50 years with an opt out clause at the 20-25 year mark and then the land must be reasonably restored to its original condition if the park is closed.

That all said I do not know who owns the airport, is it a private corp. ?

It really is a no-brainer if you have unused land with a good wind regime or in this case above average sun exposure. The park developers get cheap land, and the land owners get a sweet pay check every quarter for doing nothing...and they almost never have to give up ownership of their property.

as for Ontario and how it has handled their renewable policies...no comment haha. I will say that the rest of the country does just fine in the green energy sector without any assistance from provincial governments, the price governments/utilities pay developers per kilowatt is dropping every year but it is still a viable business. The business of "green" is not very old, the industry will continue to develop technology and find ways to do business leaner. I'm sure we won't even recognize renewables once it is 100 years old. The current way of doing things may not be the answer but it is a necessary step to push technology. The first get engine was built roughly 80 years ago, look where we are now.

[Troubleshot]

https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2012/ ... questions/

Easy clean-up? Profitable? Seems somebody doesn't think its so green or good for the bank account.

Ok well if we are gonna post links from the internet I'll post one from MIT saying it is a good idea. I'll take an MIT study over a blogger from 2012.

https://www.rt.com/news/260477-solar-power-world-mit/

A failed business venture does not mean its a bad idea, it means it was managed bad.

[cgzro]

no need to listen to bloggers or researchers, plenty of actual deployment experiences and company balance sheets to look at, since they represent actual dollars they are hard to argue with.

this is the Samsung division supplying the windsor project first quarter 2016 report.. Lots of () which mean negative numbers..

http://www.samsungsdi.com/upload/downlo ... inal_E.pdf

I would insist on prefered creditor status or removal or exchange moneys in escrow otherwise the land owner will end up with replacement or removal fees.

[CpnCrunch]

no need to listen to bloggers or researchers, plenty of actual deployment experiences and company balance sheets to look at, since they represent actual dollars they are hard to argue with.

this is the Samsung division supplying the windsor project first quarter 2016 report.. Lots of () which mean negative numbers..

http://www.samsungsdi.com/upload/downlo ... inal_E.pdf

I would insist on prefered creditor status or removal or exchange moneys in escrow otherwise the land owner will end up with replacement or removal fees.

Solar power is coming down in price every year, and is now cheaper than coal in high-sunshine places (i.e. not Canada). However even in those installations, the companies are cutting margins to the bone in order to get the contracts. It's nothing to do with the fundamentals of PV panels, it's just normal cutthroat business practices.

[teacher]

and the land owners get a sweet pay check every quarter for doing nothing

Via the Ontario tax payer. That's the only reason any of these firms are making money in Ontario. Just look at how high the prices have gone even with ALL this government subsidization! The Ontario tax payers have subsidized green power generation, destruction (to the tune of billions of dollars) of a newly refurbished coal and brand new natural gas plants, paying other jurisdictions to take surplus green electricity when not needed, paid both green energy and conventional electricity generators to NOT PRODUCE POWER, subsidizing low income Ontarians who can NO LONGER AFFORD ELECTRICITY and continue to spend hundreds of millions installing new generation that is no longer needed all to and I quote "not lose the green energy momentum"

All the meanwhile the green energy manufacturing super power that Ontario was supposed to become has not happened.

http://business.financialpost.com/fp-co ... -consumers

RANT OVER

[cgzro]

[quote]Solar power is coming down in price every year, and is now cheaper than coal in high-sunshine places (i.e. not Canada). However even in those installations, the companies are cutting margins to the bone in order to get the contracts. It's nothing to do with the fundamentals of PV panels, it's just normal cutthroat business practices. [/quote]

Then at least one of them should be doing REALLY well. A pointer to that companies year over year results for that product would be slightly more convincing than an empty assertion. Company results while not always trustworthy are at least audited and mostly unbiased (on pain of prison) so should carry some weight.

[YYZSaabGuy]

Speaking of alternative energy, here https://metricmaps.files.wordpress.com/ ... p-code.png is a map of the U.S. showing primary energy sources by zip code (sorry, I don't have the Canadian equivalent). It's a fragmented market, but it shows that wind and solar have a pretty healthy share in some regions of the country.

[fish4life]

Why is everyone so against nuclear? It's pretty damn clean

['97 Tercel]

I agree but I guess because when things go wrong...they can REALLY go wrong

[cgzro]

I believe nuclear is the safest of all energy sources per Mwh produced by a wide margin. I.e. number of people killed per Mwh produced and thats based on 30 year old technology. Coal is the worst because of the deaths mining it and renewables are in the middle with one or two really bad dam failures killing a lot of people down stream. There are some web pages that discuss the numbers.

An interesting statistic would be what would happen to the average life expectancy as a function of how much energy you have available on average per day. My guess is that if you compare the two you need to kill a lot of people as a result of generating the energy to come anywhere close to the number that die when they don't have it which is a subject rarely discussed. I.e. pros v.s. cons.

[teacher]

How many deaths can be attributed to mining rare earth metals and other materials needed to manufacture solar panels and other "green energy" products?