Abstract
†‡ This paper presents the authors’ experience in designing, sizing, and installing a 3 kW capacity photovoltaic (PV) system in their personal residence. The PV system is inter-tied to the San Diego Gas and Electric Utility grid. The grid accepts excess power from the PV system resulting in spinning the residence electric power meter backward. Under California State Law the Power Utility Companies are obligated to accept and buy back the excess power generated from renewable resources of energy. This is a part of the Government’s plan to provide economic incentives to promote energy conservation and the use of renewable resources of energy. In this paper the results for size optimization of the PV solar system, energy savings due to PV system operations, and its economic, environmental, and cultural impacts are presented and discussed. Amongst the data presented is the monthly power consumption of the residence before and after installation of the PV system, the power drawn from and fed to the San Diego Gas and Electric Utility power grid as a function of time of the day and month of the year. The cost-benefit of the PV system, with and without Government provided incentives and the utility structure rates are also discussed. Additional benefits in terms of fossil fuel avoidance, lower CO2, HC, NOx, and particulate emissions contributing to the reduction of smog and global warming are presented. Alongside the tangible benefits of the renewable energy PV system its educational and social impacts are discussed as well.
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