When you drive into North Star’s Baudette parking lot you will see a new addition to the grounds. In early June, North Star installed a 4.92KW solar system so we can monitor the actual output of a solar system in our area. To monitor this output from your home in real time, go to http://egauge8199.egaug.es/. In fact, you can see what it is being produced for as little as 10 minutes or over a full year. When you are checking out the site, be sure that you have it set on the 5KW display to get the most accurate information.
You may wonder why North Star installed a solar system at their headquarters. The answer is simple: education, both for us and our membership. If you are considering installing a solar system, we want you to have the most accurate information possible, not just some information that you read off a web site or from a salesman pushing for a sale.
The system that we installed is a 12-panel 410 watt photovoltaic system, which is rated at 4.92KW DC, and when converted to AC, which you use in your home, is 4.5KW. The system is six panels wide by two panels deep and covers a 15-foot by 40-foot area. The brand of the unit is TenK solar and they estimate that this unit will produce 6,674 kWh/year. The peak month of production is July, which they estimate at 791 kWh (763 kWh actual), and their lowest month is November, which they estimate at 277 kWh. This system is interconnected with our headquarters building so all the electric that is produced is used on site. Our headquarters building used 567,520 kWh last year so we would need 85 of these systems to produce the same kWh we needed last year. Of course, with solar energy only being produced in the daylight hours, the building would still need to be connected to commercial power for most of its energy needs. You may wonder what happens when it snows this winter. We have been told that if only a small part of the solar panel is exposed to the sun it will gather enough heat to melt the rest of the panel. Time will tell on that this winter.
This system will prevent about five metric tons of CO2/year. According to the EPA web site, the average sequestered annually by one acre of average U.S. forest land is 1.22 metric tons of CO2. This system will reduce CO2 emission equal to about four acres of land. The American Forest web site says that the average tree can absorb as much as 48 pounds of CO2/year and can sequester one ton of CO2 by the time it reaches 40 years old.
What is the cost of this system, you ask? We have invested over $17,000 in material and about another $5,000 in equipment and labor for a total cost of about $22,000. For payback information, click here to look at the information they have at their solar projects. They have installed several systems in their parks all over the state. The shortest payback is 28.43 years and the longest is 100 years. If you can’t find it there, we did have the listing in the March 2014 Enlightener, which is on our website.
If you have any questions about these systems, please give us a call or stop by and we can look at our system together.