Slashdot Mirror
Google Campus to Become Solar-powered
prostoalex writes "Reuters is reporting that Google is equipping its headquarters with a solar panel 'capable of generating 1.6 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power 1,000 California homes.' This will make Google's Mountain View campus the largest solar-powered office complex in the United States."
Get back to me when they can generate 1.21 Giggawatts.. Until then, my Delorian stays in the garage.
serenity now!
Ooops, my first calculations were a bit loopy, here's a better one, taking into account solar panel degradation, tolerances, heat factors, ACTUAL california electricity costs, now and projected, real compounded interest costs, costs of servicing and installation. Mostly concervative and real-world numbers. Still, they're losing many tens of millions-- the income from avoided electricity is barely 5% of the losses. Actually, the numbers are much worse than this-- solar power is unreliable, and most utilities charge considerably more, like twice as much, for unscheduled power. That power has to be bought on the fly, on the spot market, or requires the starting up of gas powered generators, which are very pricey to run. I couldnt figure out how to calculate this, but obviously it would only make the numbers worse. Spreadsheeet summary: panel 160 watts price $1,300.00 retail discount 40% quantity and wholesale discounts net $780.00 cost per panel watt discount 5% allowable tolerance raw watts 152 degradation 10% spec degradation over time avg degra 5% raw watts 144.4 night factor 0 oops, done later raw watts 144.4 diode factor 97% schottky series diode loss raw watrs 139.6267778 angle factor 3% loss due to sun angle delta during year raw watts 135.4379744 sun hrs 5.5 avg Socal sun hours per day sun factor 23% raw watts 31.03786914 avail 95% panel availability raw 29.48597569 panel failure rate 5% per year time to replace panel 1 hour panels failing per year 500 wiring 2% wiring losses raw watts 28.89625617 inverter eff 90% Dc to AC converter efficiency raw watts 26.00663056 hrs 8766 hours in a year watt hrs/pan 227974.1234 watt hours to load kwh 227.9741234 kilowatt hours to load cur elec cost $0.03 current socal kwh price inflation 4 Assumption of inflation in 15 years fut elec $0.11 final elec cost avg elec $0.06 average cost over years elect $ $12.77 avoided cost per panel per year watts out 1,600,000.00 target watts out gross panels 10000 computed $/yr saved $127,665.51 cost panels $7,800,000.00 inst cost 10% installation equip 20% wiring, inverters, etc tot cost $10,140,000.00 total cost of all equipment yrs 15 years of service panels/person 100 number of panels per service person persons 100 computed pay $20,000.00 pay per service person per year (LOW) pay/yr $2,000,000.00 total pay yrs tot 15 pay $ $30,000,000.00 total payroll over the years system cost $40,140,000.00 equipment plus payroll lost interest 3.5% interest possible in low-risk investments TOT SYS COST $67,803,187.28 cost plus lost interest Income $1,914,982.64 from avoided electricity costs Tot loss $65,888,204.64 $67,803,187.28 .