Unit title: Principles of light: artificial light; Daylight

factor. Photovoltaics and Biomass

Principals
Presentation title: Could domestic photovoltaics provide the
electricity needed to meet household
demand and power a family car in the uk?
Unit number: B1
Unit date: January 14th 2009
Presentation date: March 8th 2009
Student name: Craig Embleton
Student number: 0750553
Seminar group: 1 (Melissa Taylor)
e-mail: admin@greenfrontier.org
website: www.greenfrontier.org
 Could domestic photovoltaics
provide the electricity needed to
meet household demand and
power a family car in the UK?
 Contents
• Introduction
• Description of case study
• Solar panels
• Electric cars
• Electricity generated and consumed
• Summary
• Conclusions
• Issues
• Questions
 Introduction

What are the problems?

Peak oil & climate change.
• Domestic electricity in the UK responsible
for 9.57% of the nation’s CO2 emissions.
• Personal transportation responsible for
12.4% of the nation’s CO2 emissions.

Source: DUKES, 2008 & DfT, 2008

Case Study House
 Location and dimensions

Latitude* 52.04 degrees

Longitude* 0.97 degrees
Inclination of roof 35 degrees
Azimuth -30 degrees
(from South)
Area of south facing 39.1 m2
part of roof

*Source: Google Earth

 Monthly solar radiation received on the
south-facing roof
5

4
kWh/m2

1 Annual Mean 3.12

0
J F M A M J J A S O N D
Source: RETscreen using data supplied by NASA
 Electricity consumption

Quarter Quarterly Monthly

consumption consumption
kWHs kWHs
Winter 536 179
Spring 431 144
Summer 368 123
Autumn 483 161
Total 1,818
Source: Electricity statements from Good Energy
 Annual mileage driven

Total Annual Monthly Commuting

mileage mean mileage
(3 year mean)

7,889 657 428

(65% of total)

Source: Ministry of Transport test certificates

 SunPower 230Wp photovoltaic module

Conversion efficiency 18.5 %

Area per kWp 5.409 m2

Source: SunPower, 2008

 Electric car - Pininfarina Bº (Zero)

Top speed 80 mph

Range 153 miles
Efficiency 0.1961 kWHs/mile

Source: Pininfarina, 2009

Electricity consumption and module sizing

Household Pininfarina B°
Annual 1.818 MWHs 1.547 MWHs
electricity (7,889 *
consumed 0.1961/1000)
Panel
area 9.3 m2 7.9 m2
required

•Total panel area required = 17.2 m2

•Area for 4 kWp installation = 22 m2
 Electricity generated & consumed
by case study house (kWHs/month)
Cons um ed by hous ehold
Cons um ed by Pininfarina B0
Generated by a 4 kWp ins tallation
600
500
400
kWHs

300
200
100
0
J F M A M J J A S O N D
Source: Calculated using RETscreen algorithms
 Summary
A 4 kWp installation covering 22m2 of case
study house’s roof would mean the house:

• Net exporter to the grid from March to

September.
• Meets all the car’s requirements.
• Generates 852 kWHs of electricity more
than required annually.
 Conclusion
Could domestic photovoltaics
provide the electricity needed to
meet household demand and
power a family car in the UK?
Yes. Easily for the case study house,
by selling to and buying back from the
national grid to compensate for
fluctuations.
 Issues – Areas for improvement?

• Data taken from commercially supplied

datasheets.
• Real world independent trials necessary.
• Costs of electricity.
• Embodied energy.
• Degradation of efficiency of photovoltaics.
• Transmission losses.
 Issues – What about the rest of the UK?
• Many UK houses could support a 4 kWp
photovoltaic array and over half are
orientated in a southerly direction.
However:
• The mean UK household consumes more
than twice the electricity than the case
study, and drives over a quarter more
miles.
Sources: Boyle, G 2004, National Travel Survey, 2007
& DUKES , 2008
Questions?
 Bibliography
• Boyle, G. (2004). Solar Photovoltaics. In:
Boyle, G Renewable Energy. 2nd ed. Oxford:
Oxford University Press. 66-104.
• Department for Business, Enterprise &
Regulatory Reform (BERR). (2008). Digest
of United Kingdom Energy Statistics 2008.
Available:
http://stats.berr.gov.uk/energystats/dukes08.p
df. Last accessed 7 February 2009.
 Bibliography Continued
• Department for Transport. (2008). National
Travel Survey: 2007. Available:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/162259/162469/221412
/221531/223955/3227431/NTS2007.pdf. Last
accessed 11 February 2009.
• Department for Transport. (2008). Transport
Statistics Great Britain (TSGB), Section 3 -
Energy and Environment. Available:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatables
publications/tsgb/2008edition/section3energy
environment.pdf. Last accessed 6 February
2009.
 Bibliography Continued
• NASA. (2009). NASA Surface meteorology
and Solar Energy: Locate RETScreen Data.
Available: http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/cgi-
bin/sse/ion-p?
page=globe_main.ion&app=ret&email=rets@
nrcan.gc.ca. Last accessed 15 February
2009.
• Pininfarina. (2008). B0 the Electric Car.
Available:
http://www.pininfarina.it/repository/Immagini/a
uto%20elettrica/BO%20pininfarina.pdf. Last
accessed 16 February 2009.
 Bibliography Continued
• Pininfarina. (2008). Pininfarina B0 image
gallery. Available:
http://www.pininfarina.it/repository/Immagini/a
uto%20elettrica/pagina
%20download/Tqa.jpgLast accessed 16
February 2009.
• RETScreen International. (2009). RETScreen
Clean Energy Project Analysis Software
Download page. Available:
http://www.retscreen.net/ang/home.php. Last
accessed 1 February 2009.
 Bibliography Continued
• SunPower. (2008). Datasheet: 230 Solar
Panel. Available:
http://www.sunpowercorp.com/Products-and-
Services/~/media/Downloads/for_products_s
ervices/spwr_230wh_res_en_lt_w_ra.ashx.
Last accessed 11 February 2009.