Green Business - Assignment Example

I have decided to install some renewable source of power that does not require any fossil fuels such as coal, petrol or diesel. Also by using such renewable source of power, I will help reduce the load of CO2 from the environment. For renewable source of energy, it has been decided to install solar PV cell based system that not only meets my energy requirements but will produce surplus electricity that will be sold at the prevailing rates to the electrical grid. The advantage is that the PV based solar energy is covered for feed-in-tariffs for the generation of renewable power and that is how this project can generate decent revenue even after meeting captive requirements.

Producing and Selling Green Energy The technology selected is Solar PV cell based with inverter, batteries and meters. PV cells or in scientific world known as photovoltaic is heart of the system. The benefit with such technology is that it is eco-friendly–without any harmful effects on environment. It requires only one-time capital investment and there is no operating cost involved. Maintenance cost is hardly any except batteries that need to be replaced only after 3-4 year period. The photovoltaic cells are made of silicon microchips or wafers and due to their unique property they absorb solar energy to produce electrical energy.

Higher the solar energy, more the electrical current or power it can produce. The direct current can be converted into AC current by the equipment called inverter and the power can be stored in the array of batteries. A typical PV based solar energy system can be shown as per the following diagram. Source: http://homepower.com/basics/solar/#MainDCDisconnect Project Report for PV based Solar System Installation Capacity- 10kWh Name of the Company Producing PV Solar System 1. Freesource Energy, UK 2.

Techno Sun, UK 3. First Solar, US 4. Solar Europa, UK The plan is to produce 10 kW-hour of renewable source of energy with captive consumption of 5kW-hour and balance will be sold to the electric grid at the prevailing rates. Costs The current cost of 2.77kW-hour system is found to be ?11,000 (including VAT at 5%). The investment required for 10kW-hour system is approximately ? 45,000. (Solar Electricity) Consumption The Production unit will consume 2kW and balance 8 kW will be sold to the grid through a scheme called feed-in-tariffs.

Understanding Feed-in-Tariffs The Feed-in-Tariffs are available to those who own and produce renewable source of energy. The tariffs for Solar PV based unit for 4-10kW production unit are 37.8p/kWh of energy. The benefit is available for the duration of 25 years. (Tariff Levels… 2011) Revenue Calculation A) By Selling Surplus Power The surplus power that is available is 8kW and that can be sold to grid. Considering daily production for about 12 hours, the per day revenue will incur 37.8?8?12 =?36.28 Considering 150 days of solar energy production in a year (number of days solar energy available) it will generate revenue of 150?36.28= ?5443 B) Saving Incurred by Captive Consumption Captive consumption is again 2kW and since no operating cost is involved to produce it, whatever payment is made in buying grid electricity is now saved.

Considering conventional average grid electricity charges of 10p per kWh, and working of 10 hours in a day, per day saving comes to 2?10?10=?2 Again, assuming available benefit for 150 days (number of days s