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Posted

Shots from today...

I don't usually go North and over the trees... but.. 380 foot take off in 18" of snow!

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Man it looks cold out there...

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..and the wind chill having to get out and pull the airplane around with the windmill turning didn't help!

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Snake Island frozen in..

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Sound almost frozen out to the Giants Tomb.

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Penetang Harbour iced in.

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Ever see water boil when it's -18!

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Nottawasaga Bay freezing in... only the 4th time I've seen this since getting my licence in 1989!

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Maybe someone should have told them multi million dollar solar farms are useless in Canada!

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Glousteur Pool (or how ever you spell it) and Six Mile frozen in.

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Rarely see it frozen in front of the Delewana.. or the channel , let alone in December!

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Posted (edited)

Someone that's a day late Terry... one sunny day in the last 2 weeks and the week to come and they sure weren't making power today!

 

.. I have to say I found a way to use tags here.. as I had no other way of entering anything.. locked out on Windows 7 pro

Edited by irishfield
Posted

Those solar farms are a waste of good land.

 

I agree with you but on the other side of the coin i have a couple of friends that have been employed building those things. May not be the best things for everyone but they must help someone at some point in time.

Posted

I agree with you but on the other side of the coin i have a couple of friends that have been employed building those things. May not be the best things for everyone but they must help someone at some point in time.

 

Ya, same here. Falther-inlaw is making real good coin putting these together, working some place near London, His house is off grid too, so he really is laughing to the bank.

Posted

 

Ya, same here. Falther-inlaw is making real good coin putting these together, working some place near London, His house is off grid too, so he really is laughing to the bank.

they pay more then real value and then we make up the difference on our power bills

Posted (edited)

just a quick set of numbers, for the business folk on this board.

 

10MW solar farm cost: $35m

Annual revenue generated: $7m (this is not some random number. We have insured these for almost five years. This is the average return, annually, on a 10MW solar farm). I actually insure that specific farm.

 

Therefore, five years you break even (give or take a year or two depending on financing terms). Your contract with the government is 20 years.

 

I'm sure it won't take a genius to see the $$business$$ sense behind operating a 10mw solar farm.

Edited by Steve
Posted

Sure beats cutting the hay that they were Steve... but maybe they should have put shakers on the panels. If you're gonna build such a farm right in the lake squall sector... you'd think you'd take into consideration snowfall vs sunny days.

 

105 million return.. all on the back of hydro one users... No wonder my hydro bills is triple it was in '03. Yah.. I'm just jealous that I don't have a three phase grid going past the gate post!

Posted (edited)

i won't argue that point bud.

 

i'm paying like the rest of ya.

 

i'm not even the broker, so I'm not making any commission on this stuff...I just provide the insurance.

 

Any questions, just ask.

 

There was a point about about a waste of land. My personal experience is many, if not most, of these farms are being installed on land that otherwise isn't the most "farm-able". (not all, but most).

Edited by Steve
Posted

Here's a video to go with the pictures. Unedited.. shows what's involved in a flight in the snow to some extent. Also shows why we get hammered here in the yard with snow, as the highest point of land on the "coast" of Georgian Bay and only 3500 feet from same!

Posted

just a quick set of numbers, for the business folk on this board.

 

10MW solar farm cost: $35m

Annual revenue generated: $7m (this is not some random number. We have insured these for almost five years. This is the average return, annually, on a 10MW solar farm). I actually insure that specific farm.

 

Therefore, five years you break even (give or take a year or two depending on financing terms). Your contract with the government is 20 years.

 

I'm sure it won't take a genius to see the $$business$$ sense behind operating a 10mw solar farm.

Just curious. If the government changes hands, will the contract still be guaranteed? Also I hear the government pays the 'farmer' more for the hydro produced than is collected from the end user. Is this correct?

Posted (edited)

Yes, they are guaranteed rate contracts, guaranteed for 20 years, regardless of the government in control.

 

Yes, on the second question as well. If there wasn't an incentive, and the power was purchased at the price collected by the end user, it wouldn't be prudent for "the farmer" to put panels on their land/roof/etc.

 

There have been revisions to the power purchase agreements, originally written prior to "FIT (feed into tariff)" program under a contract called "RESOP". Since the original power purchase agreement (PPA) offers, the government has consistently been decreasing the price paid per kw. This is proper and accepted by the investor, as the cost of the equipment (panels, inverters, etc) have decreased year by year (due to increased demand and local production).

 

PPA's entered into today pay the highest from energy generated from panels on a rooftop (incentive to those who don't have "tons" of land to use for panels). The next highest is "small scale - microFIT" ground mount panels. You see these often on farmers fields with a "tilting" mechanism so that the panels follow the sun (those are called trackers). Finally, the lowest amount (but still very healthy amount) is paid to "large scale" ground mount farms, usually producing power between 1mw to 10mw - and upwards of 100mw (all per farm).

Edited by Steve

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