Download Assignment 2 for Renewable Energy Policy - Spring 2005 | ENVS 5820 and more Assignments Environmental Science in PDF only on Docsity! ENVS 5820 Spring 2005 Problem Set 2: Renewable Technologies A few suggestions: Show all work. Make assumptions explicit and clear. Write legibly. Use 8.5” by 11” paper, and staple multiple pages. Don’t hand in late. It’s okay to work together. If you get stuck, send me an email komor@colorado.edu. Due Monday 31 January. A. System Sizing 1. Figure out how much of Colorado we would need to cover with photovoltaics (PVs) such that all our electricity comes from these PVs. Assume we want to have this system in place by 2006. Use table 5 of “State Electricity Profiles – Colorado” in the reader (page 464) to forecast 2006 needed electricity generation, in MWh/year. Assume the average insolation (sunlight) in Colorado is 5.5 kWh/m2/day. Assume as well that PVs convert sunlight into electricity at an efficiency of 10%. Express your answer in square miles. There are about 2.56 million (2.56 x 106) square meters in one square mile. Size the system to meet forecasted 2006 consumption (MWh/year), not peak demand (MW). 2. What percentage of Colorado would we need to cover with PV panels to get all our electricity from PVs? Colorado covers about 104,000 square miles. 3. If we decided that wind turbines should produce all the electricity needed in Colorado in 2006, how many wind turbines, at 1.5 MW peak output each, would be needed? Assume a capacity factor for wind of 22%. As in problem #1, size the system to meet the forecasted 2006 consumption (MWh/year), not demand (MW). B. System Finance 4. Photovoltaic systems cost about $6/peak watt output for the PVs themselves, plus another $2/peak watt output for ‘balance-of-system’ (BOS) components (wires, inverters, etc.). Assume 1 m2 of PV panel yields 100 peak watts. What would be the first (initial) cost of Colorado’s new PV system? Hint: start with the total m2 of PV panels from problem #1, then figure out the corresponding wattage and cost. 5. A 1.5 MW peak output wind turbine costs about $1,000,000 for the turbine itself, and $500,000 for BOS components. What would be the first (initial) cost of Colorado’s new wind system? 6. Now assume that the first costs for PV system are paid for from a loan. The loan payments come from selling the electricity. How much will
