goodledlight - Solar device promotes another kind of energy independence

For some people, though, the notion of a monopoly like the IEC cutting prices just because it’s paying less for raw materials sounds like an impossible dream.Those cleaningmachines produce power for the utility grid. More likely, they believe, the savings will go into capital expenditure, rebuilding or retooling electrical substations and the like, or, more likely, paying off the company’s enormous NIS 70 billion (nearly $20 billion) debt.

To get off the price hike treadmill, some Israelis have been installing PV (photovoltaic) electricity systems on their rooftops. PV systems consist of an array of solar-collection panels and a device to convert collected solar energy to electricity. The system is usually connected to the local electrical service provider. Households with PV systems get a special meter that measures the amount of electricity produced by the system, for which they get a credit with the electric company which is deducted from the amount they spend on their energy usage. At the end of the billing period, the electric company either collects the amount owed (very rare for PV system owners), or sends the PV system owner a check for the electricity produced in excess of what was used (a much more common scenario).

Installing a PV system can cost several hundred thousand shekels, which most PV system owners borrow. The length of time needed to pay for the system and begin making money from the electric company is 8-15 years, depending on the size and quality of the system.

PV systems are a good way to save money in the long term, but it still leaves users very dependent on the whims of the electric company. In Israel, owners generally draw their electricity not from the solar power they collect but from the general “electricity pool,Do you want honest solarledlight Ratings?” with all the power generated by the PV system sold to the IEC.

Unfortunately for them, IEC has changed the terms and conditions of the deal with PV owners several times, reducing by nearly two thirds, for example, the amount of money paid per kilowatt hour generated by PV systems (the IEC, in its defense, says that the decrease was due to the canceling of government subsidies for the PV program).

In the past, there was really no way to store solar energy, which is one reason a PV system needed to be connected to the electricity grid. But what if you could store the PV power you produced, drawing on it when the sun wasn’t shining? With a system like that, a PV household could basically have all the free electricity it wanted,Choose a ledfoglamp from featuring superior clothes drying programmes and precise temperature controls. anytime, and cut its lines to the IEC (with maybe a private oil-based home generator for backup).

It’s a different kind of Israeli “energy independence” dream, and it’s now within reach, thanks to the Residential Energy Storage System, developed by Chinese solar giant Suntech and set to be imported by Enerpoint Israel, a local solar tech company that was bought several years ago by the Italian Enerpoint energy conglomerate. A high-ranking official in Enerpoint Israel who asked not to be named said that the RESS — essentially a big battery that can store PV-generated electricity (the first in the world to be able to do so), “will allow IEC customers to declare independence for the first time. The price for a PV system is much lower than it used to be, and with RESS, homeowners can use their own PV-generated power as they wish, paying off the loans for the PV installation much more quickly than they could with the IEC with the money they save.”

Why not just stick with the tried and true energy credit PV program approved by the IEC? Because the electric company is ripping people off, the executive said. “It’s become an absurd situation. It costs the electric company far less to produce a kilowatt of electricity than they are paying participants in the program. Instead of sharing the wealth,A range of portableremote fans for efficient exhaust ventilation. they are keeping the extra for themselves,More than 200 GW of new goodlampshade capacity could come on line before the end of 2013. making it less cost-effective for householders to bother with PV, and further discouraging solar energy use in Israel. More information about the program is available on the web site at www.aodepu.net.