Sun shines on New York solar energy boom [math illiterates think 1.6 MW is a lot]

yahoo.com/AFP ^ | February 23, 2014 | Brigitte Dusseau

[grundle]

New York (AFP) - On a rooftop in the Bronx far from the skyscrapers of Manhattan, 4,760 panels soak up the winter rays. Welcome to the solar power boom in New York state.

Robert Kline, director of commercial sales for the Ross Solar Group that installed the panels, is delighted.

"It is the largest (solar) installation in the history of New York City," he tells AFP.

The 1.6-megawatt installation on the Jetro Cash and Carry has been proudly singled out by New York governor Andrew Cuomo as a prime example of a drive to haul the state into a new dawn.

[grundle]

If they build another 999 of these sized solar projects, they could then shut down one coal plant, but only during the daytime, and even then, only when there are no clouds. They'd still need a backup power source for when the sun isn't available, and that backup would almost certainly be some type of fossil fuel.

[Army Air Corps]

One point six megawatts? That’s it?

[Nifster]

The lefties posing as greenies are not concerned with facts. All they care about is government control

[Ray76]

Those panels are not even directed toward the sun.

[publius911]

Long on hype, and embarrassingly short on useful facts.
How much did the installation cost total?
Including taxpayer subsidies, grants and interest costs.

How much power is actually delivered?
Not just the nominal "capacity. Actual delivered power?
What are the maintenance costs to the users?
Does the rates paid for the power reflect actual cost of generation and delivery?

So many claims, so much BS.
And so little facts.

[publius911]

One point six megawatts? That’s it?

That's the "rating" on the specs label.
Totally meaningless.
What's has actually been delivered during the day, average?
What has actually been delivered on an average night?

[Ray76]

Consolidate Edison - Con Ed - serves NYC and area. Over 20,000,000 megawatt hours are delivered to residential and commercial customers. http://www.coned.com/documents/facts-2012.pdf

1.6 / 20,000,000 = 0.000008%

This is a drop in the ocean.

[Army Air Corps]

I figured as much. That 1.6Mw is the max rated output, so the average is likely lower than that.

[Vince Ferrer]

Not even useful for a flux capacitor.

[Army Air Corps]

You won’t even make it back to last Thursday on that amount of power. ;-)

[kvanbrunt2]

I’ll use about 720K to get my maters up and running. course that is over a 60 day period.

[Mariner]

Sheesh, if one is going to try Solar they should try in the interior southwest, not NYC.

Retards.

[FreedomPoster]

I worked at a *real* power plant ages ago as a coop student, GA Power’s Plant Bowen.

1.6 MW was probably about the size of the on site auxiliary combustion turbines for start up power in case a massive outage knocked everything off line. If other words, 1.6 MW is enough power to start a real powerplant.

[Nuc 1.1]

Gonna drive the state to her twilight then night, not dawn.

[Vince Ferrer]

I think this means our capacity for time travel peaked in 1985. All downhill from there. Not even a hoverboard.

[bigbob]

That’s nameplate. In NY the capacity factor has to be awfully low.

[logitech]

But it said “mega”.

That is a lot? Right?

[Doomonyou]

of course they will be covered with snow for months as well.

[grundle]

Thanks for those numbers!

[grundle]

Great story!