In an odd juxtaposition of purpose and ideals, Pottstown, Pennsylvania-based Buckman’s Ski and Snowboard Shops recently announced it was installing 3,000 roof-mounted solar photovoltaic panels to supply electricity to the company’s warehouse and production facilities.
Cooler temperatures are generally better for conventional (silicon-based) solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. In fact, according to a recent study, temperatures around 93 degrees Fahrenheit (34 Celsius) began to affect solar PV performance, with temperatures over 107 degrees Fahrenheit causing a power drop, over time, of a whopping 40 percent.
The 620-kilowatt solar PV system for Buckman's Ski is being developed by Kunkletown, Pennsylvania-based Metro-Tek Electrical Services, is expected to provide 700,000 kilowatt-hours per year of electricity.
The calculations may be a little high. One kilowatt of solar generates between 750 and 1,600 kilowatt-hours per year, depending on system efficiency and solar insolation values. Pennsylvania’s average solar insolation ranges from 2.0 to 3.5, or about half that of the highest insolation values (6.5) in the continental U.S.
Still, assuming the estimate is accurate, the PV system will add badly needed electricity to the Eastern grid while also offsetting 503 metric tons of carbon dioxide which would have otherwise been generated by PECO Energy, a subsidiary of Exelon. This is the same as removing 96 cars from the road or planting 12,890 trees.
The PV system will also be one of the largest in the state when completed, and will help prevent “brownouts” as the already overtaxed Eastern Interconnect, which in 2003 saw massive failures, struggles to match electricity delivery with demand.
In fact, solar electricity may be the only thing holding back the darkness, as Exelon – one of the East’s largest generators – closes four Pennsylvania generating units and considers further cutbacks.
Take a 2008 summary by the NextGen Energy Council, which predicts brownouts in 2009. A possibility supported by Rich Sergel (President of the North American Electric Reliability Corp., the agency that oversees the nation’s power grid), who says that the nation as a whole, and the Eastern Seaboard in particular, has reached a point where demand may exceed resources, even with the addition of renewable energy.
In fact, according to the report, current baseload reserve margins are down to about 15 percent, with at least 12 percent reserve needed to insure stability of the nation’s electric system – a margin that can’t be met without adding electricity generation and transmission because demand is forecast to grow by 18 percent in the next ten years alone.
Thus Buckman’s solar installation, which might seem small in the grand scheme of things, is actually an incremental protection against that failure, and many more are needed.
Buckman's plans to do its part by adding both wind and solar thermal heating systems at each of its shops once the 620-kilowatt solar installation is completed.