Messages posted by : AllyG
Brucie, If I am right, and that drag lift requires 18 kilowatts of energy per hour, you'd only need about a gallon an hour of diesel, or equivalent, to run it. But I think they are hoping to make some money out of the solar panel system. |
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Maybe she's getting numb feet because she's not bending her ankles and keeping her shins in the ski-ing position. I have recently had new ski boots fitted and my technician said that the boots will make my feet go numb while I'm standing or sitting normally but not while I'm ski-ing or keeping myself in the ski-ing position.
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That's quite true Pablo, I had totally forgotten about running the engine on biofuels. Thanks. But fossil fuels are still going to run out, although no-one knows when, for sure. And politically, countries don't like to have to rely on foreign energy sources. Where I live, here in Pembrokeshire, we have recently had a demonstration of that, in that they have built a massive gas pipe line from here into England so that they can bring in LNG by ship here and hence avoid another unpleasant gas shortage situation like the one recently where the Russians stopped gas transportation to various countries. Ally |
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Thanks Bandit. 100 Swiss Francs seems to be equivalent to £61 at the moment, so that makes the hypothetical electricity I'm selling worth 29.9 pence per kilowatt, which doesn't sound very much. Maybe it's because the pound is down at the moment. And I don't know how much normal electricity costs in Switzerland. Brucie - why are we reverting to horsepower? I had thought about trying to calculate how much power was required by the ski lift using kinetic energy calculations, but I didn't attempt it because I don't know how long the lift is, how fast it moves, the vertical distance involved, the value to use for the friction of the skis on the snow, or the number of people travelling on it at any one time and their average weight. So I didn't bother. Once upon a time I used to be quite good at these sort of calculations. And I did in fact coach my older daughter through her A Level physics, and my younger daughter has just asked me for some help with her A Level maths mechanics revision. Ally |
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Bandit,
I thought about that as well. The articles I have read on solar panels say they don't require any maintenance and that they seem to be lasting longer (up to 30 years) than expected (20 years). However, I agree with you that the fancy tilting mechanism is bound to need maintenance, but since it's a newly designed system I don't suppose they know yet how much it will cost, and it may even be covered by a guarantee covered by the manufacturers. I have had a go with SwingBeep's Swiss price calculator. I pretended to have a 2 kW PV system ready to go in March next year and it said I would get 49.0 Rp/KWh. What is an Rp? Do you think maybe I got a bit carried away and pretended to be in India or something? :D :D Ally |
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Brucie, I'm glad to hear you're interested in this as well :D SwingBeep - thanks, I am still thinking about your contribution (and trying to translate the German!). A drag lift system powered by a diesel generator, or electricity from the national grid, would be much cheaper to build. But, in energy terms, the solar system should be able to pay for itself in about 6 years (less maybe I haven't been able to see their exact figures for this), and after this the energy produced will be completely carbon neutral. Whereas a diesel generator would continue to run on diesel - a fossil fuel. However, I think the point is, as I said before, that the price of electricity produced by the PV solar wings and sold to the national grid will be subsidised through the Swiss national scheme (as detailed in the link below), so that it should be able to run at a profit to the community of Tenna that will own the lift, after a few years. http://www.bfe.admin.ch/energie/00588/00589/00644/index.html?lang=en&msg-id=28572 It seems that all the Swiss electricity consumers are currently paying an extra 0.45 cents per kilowatt hour in order to fund the extra prices paid for electricity from 'green' or renewable sources. I haven't been able to find out yet how much they will get for the electricity they sell, but I think it is probably about four times the going rate for conventionally produced electricity (the same as it is now here in the U.K. for new systems). And the reason for this is that Switzerland wants to increase the amount of power they produce from renewable sources to 10% of the total, presumably both to slow down global warming and also to make them more independant of fossil fuels (which are running out and likely to become very expensive and hard to obtain). They also seem to have environmental problems with their hydroelectric power. The costings I obtained for a hypothetical PV system on our own properties (from the energysavingtrust.org) reckoned that for a 2.2 Kw system, requiring 18 metres squared of solar panels, we would be into profit after 6 years after an initial outlay of £20,000- with an annual income of £3,570 guaranteed for 25 years. I imagine the figures are probably something similar for the Swiss system at Tenna allowing for the differenc in magnitude of the system. So, what I am trying to say, is that the new solar powered lift would eventually be a 'cash cow' for the Tenna community, as well as a ski lift! Ally |
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Maybe we'll be able to fly to the ski resorts one day using solar power :D
http://www.yourrenewablenews.com/news_item.php?newsID=48581 |
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Eggman,
That is really ridiculous. I hope you get your money okay. Ally |
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