Switching from public energy supply to solar panels in condominium buildings

[pepi2005]

Are there any experiences with such a move done here in Thailand by Thaivisa members?

 

Our building is currently within a mess of some co-owners paying their electrical bills directly, others paying through the condominium with slightly higher fees per unit to cover common expenses (which is obviously unfair). What has always concerned me is that Thailand, one of the countries blessed with extreme sunlight during most of the year is considering building nuclear plants.

 

So when I recently read that switching to solar energy has already become so affordable that it should even be economical in hot countries without public funding (as it is still the case in Thailand if I'm up to date on that), it would be an interesting idea to start saving funds that would allow us to make ourselves independent from companies in 5-10 years from now.

 

Did anyone of you guys follow the latest developments here in these regards or has even tried an estimated calculation of the cost and sustainability such a move would involve?

[Crossy]

What is the building's average power consumption?

 

What area is available to install solar panels?

 

Are you intending to be completely off-grid?

 

Payback on a grid-tie system is about 7 years, but to make a significant dent in a building's power bill is going to need a large area of panels.

 

[AlexRRR]

You cant be independent from the utility company unless you have battery back up for nights and thats around $AU 10,000 a battery and falling per unit possibly in AU with in 5 ys those batteries will be around 5gees...

 

I dout there would be enough roof space to power a large condo block though technology is here for new buildings to be green...your unlikely to get the rest of the owners to come to the party why not look into hooking up your own a 3 kilowatt system is the norm here for powering a home, forget about selling it back to the supply co...

[SaintLouisBlues]

25 minutes ago, pepi2005 said:

So when I recently read that switching to solar energy has already become so affordable that it should even be economical in hot countries without public funding (as it is still the case in Thailand if I'm up to date on that), it would be an interesting idea to start saving funds that would allow us to make ourselves independent from companies in 5-10 years from now.

It's only economical if the cost of amortizing the solar panels over their useful life is less than the assumed cost of the electricity consumption. In First World countries that have encouraged household solar, such as Australia, the take up was significant only because the governments mandated high payments from the electricity companies to households who fed the excess electricity they generated. Those panels are now technologically obsolete (as you would expect). Thanks to Elon Musk http://www.wired.co.uk/article/elon-musk-solar-city-roofs-october-28 there's now a second generation of more efficient solar panels that, combined with equally more efficient storage batteries is the way of the future. The model you are describing however sounds much more like solar panels feeding an "embedded network" wholly within your condo and I'm not sure how this is regarded by the Thai electricity authorities. If you want to examine the Australian model you can find an example (there are several if you hunt around) - ignore the fact it says "commerical" they mean condos as well https://aglsolar.com.au/commercial-solar/

[pepi2005]

Our condominium building has 13 floors and 240 units, half of which are unoccupied during most of the year, and I'd guess that not more than 20% are occupied on a permament basis.

The rooftop is completely unused. 

 

Yes, I guess one option would be just to make ourselves mostly independent from public energy by simply having panels at the rooftop, (as an amateur!) I'd hope that all occupied units could be covered during daytime if they're connected through in-house wires, not independently.

The other, certainly more costly option would be similar to the one @SaintLouisBlues mentioned: Tesla PowerWalls or a similar system (I guess more will be available in the not too distant future) that are able to buffer energy during nights as well.

 

Whether such a project would make sense economically in a building such as ours would be most interesting to find out. Unfortunately I don't have enough knowledge about electric installations and requirements to do a rough estimation. I just know that I would be excited if we would think ahead and reserve funds for such an investment in our building's future that could save us costs, make ourselves more independent and also contribute to keep Thailand beautiful and safe.

 

[Crossy]

Just how big is the roof? You can find your place on google maps and measure it easily. That would give an idea of how much energy you could practically harvest.

 

I doubt you're going to be able to go off grid entirely, but a grid-tie system with a feed-in tariff could be used to offset building costs.