Brucie wrote:Dave Mac wrote:The point about diesel v solar is that after 6 years, you Brucie, are paying for your diesel, bio or non- bio, and have to buy your lift pass, whereas Ally has recouped all of her investment, and is then skiing for free. Every year. -)
Sorry Dave, but I dont agree that a capital cost of 3/4 of a million poundscould be recouped in 6 years. This would entail making a gross profit of £125,000 per year or a yield on investment of 16.66% which in todays financial climate would be astronomical.
If you can confirm these figures, I suggest we all club together and buy the J2ski solar drag lift somewhere, say Niederau, sit back and count the cash as it rolls in!!! :lol:
Brucie,
It was the solar panel part of the lift that I had estimated would pay for itself in 6 years, not the whole lift. They needed to build a new drag lift anyway, which they would have had to fund through the profits associated with it (from tourism, lift pass, whatever ...).
I got lost in all that German, but SwingBeep said that the solar bit of the lift was going to cost 420,000 Swiss Francs, which is £253,000.
I had another go at that electricity price calculator, and put in 18 kW and 'integrated' for the sort of solar system (I am only guessing here) and this time I was rewarded with an electricity price of 62.5rp per kWh which equates to 38 pence per kWh. It is designed to produce 90,000 kWh per year, so it should generate an annual gross income from selling the electricity of £34,200. And, if it works the same as the British system, they also get the electricity they use for free. The lift is estimated to use 22,000 kWh which at 10 pence per unit (I don't know how much Swiss electricty costs but maybe someone will correct me here) is worth £2,200 p.a. So gross income from electricity generated by the solar panels would be £36,400.
£253,280 divided by £36,400 is 7. So, yes I was out by a bit. According to my slightly dodgy calculations it would take 7 years, not 6 to pay for the solar part of the ski lift, and that's only if you ignore the cost of borrowing the money or the loss by not being able to invest it elsewhere.
It would be nice if someone involved in the Tenna project would step in and give us the real figures, so I wouldn't have to keep guestimating.
Ally