Linking Solar Panels / Wind Farm to Mains To Reduce Energy Consumption:?

Question

Hello All,

I run a Design Company, and as part of my expension, I am mortgaging to build an "Eco-Friendly" office. I have grants from the DTI and assistance from several groups to build a "green" building at a smaller cost than a traditional "bricks and mortar" construction.

We are looking at using Solar panels on the roof to reduce our electric and heating costs, and potentially tying it in with a small windfarm. My question is, does anyone know (on a conceptual basis) what equipment is needed to allow these two energy devices to work in harmony with mains supply?

Your thoughts & advice are appreciated

Steve
Modelspace Design

EDIT: I want the panels / windfarm at the business site as a showpiece.

Answer 1

Solar panels, best called a photovoltaic array in this case, output electricity directly. As a result, you just need to tie them into the building's power supply, and then they can supplement power consumption when they are producing power. This requires some electronics know-how and maybe some capacitors and switches, but nothing particularly obscure or sophisticated.

In order to use a wind farm, you simply need to contract with an existing wind farm to buy your power from them. Wind power is not available everywhere, but your local power utility may be able to tell you if it's a possibility for you. Depending on the local regulation status of the power industry, the wind power might simply be an option from within the utility, or you may need to end your contact with the existing utility and contract directly with a wind farm.

Answer 2

For solar (probably similar with wind) you'll need the following:

- large, deep cycle batteries to store all the energy captured by solar and wind (12 or 24 volts are recommended)

- charge regulators to ensure batteries are not over-charged and at the same time can usually assure electricity is not lost due to reverse draining

- an inverter to convert dc electricity obtained by the solar and wind instruments to ac electricity so you can power standard home appliances

- a multimeter or some gadget to indicate the charge of the batteries in voltage (a regulator might also do this)

- need to estimate the total wattage you use to power the house in a given day so you can figure out how many solar panels/wind generators you'll need

this is mostly knowledge of solar energy but I believe wind uses the same basic concepts. Good luck, I always thought the idea of a fully functioning house on renewable energy sources was fascinating.

Answer 3

What you need is a utility intertie inverter, which is a DC to AC inverter that can also be programmed to pump AC back into the mains. Typically, solar and wind power are used to charge a battery bank, and when the battery is full, the charging source is disconnected from the battery by the charge controller, and the excess power goes to waste. With a utility intertie inverter, you can set the inverter to send power back into the mains when full battery voltage is reached.

Answer 4

I googled "home solar power system" and got several links, the first of which is the source below.

I also googled "grid connected solar power system" and "grid connected wind power system" for other good links. There is much less information on the wind systems.