Germany Overturns Solar Rules to Win Decathlon With 200% Solar Home

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Dit soort ontwikkelingen worden nauwelijks beschreven in de pers in
Nederland. Waarom?

Groet / Cees

http://www.homedesignfind.com/green/germany-overturns-solar-rules-to-win-decathlon-with-200-solar-home/
For the first time in the Solar Decathlon, a home that has produced
twice the amount of energy as it used, won the first prize. And it did
so in a very unusual way.

Every year the US Department of Energy has a solar competition for the
best house that gets 100% of its electricity from  solar panels. Most
are content to supply  100% of their electricity from solar, by simply
covering the roof with solar panels.

Germany’s entry; the two story Cube House was unique in that the entire
house is covered by solar panels, something that most solar installers
would not recommend, because walls are at the wrong angle to the sun.

Walls are at 90 degrees, not the 20 or so which is the optimal angle for
solar panels.

The 11 kW solar panel system was comprised of 40 solar panels
(monocrystalline silicon) for the roof with 250 thin-film (copper indium
gallium diselenide) panels for the walls.

These panels flipped out are at about70 degrees. At this angle they
produce less power from the same panels, but a little more than if they
were straight up the wall at 90 degrees. On a North facing wall this can
be as low as 50%.

In addition,  thinfilm is itself a less efficient solar producer,
although better at ambient light conversion -  so they were a better
choice for this maverick wall solar idea than PV.

Bucking the common wisdom is nothing new for Germany. That  is how that
nation, with as little sun as Massachusetts, somehow leads the world in
solar roofs. The government there simply pays people to make solar power
with a Feed in Tariff, requiring electric utilities to buy from anyone
who sends power to the grid, from their roof, or their field. So people do.

So it is interesting to see how successful breaking the rules of common
wisdom can be.


The 11kW Solar Powered House
http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=63
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Solar powered home
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2009 is winding down after
another successful year.

The Solar Decathlon is a competition in which college teams compete to
design, and build the most aesthetically pleasing, effective and
energy-efficient solar powered house.

Each house in the 2009 Solar Decathlon was connected to a power grid and
equipped with a bi-directional meter that measured both its consumption
and production of energy.

This year's show-stealer was an entry from Germany's Technische
Universitat Darmstadt. Called the "Cube House", their design produced a
surplus of power even during three days of rain.

While most home solar power systems are around 1 - 2 kW, the surface of
Cube House is covered with an 11 kW solar panel system comprised of 40
monocrystalline silicon panels on the roof and about 250 thin-film
copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) panels on the sides. Combined
and in favourable condtions, the array can produce an incredible 200% of
the energy needed by the house.

Other technologies included in the Cube House are custom-made vacuum
insulation structural panels, phase-change material in both walls
(paraffin) and ceiling (salt hydrate), automated louver-covered windows
and a boiler integrated into the heat pump system allowing for the
provision of domestic hot water as well as heating and cooling.

The cost to build the house? An estimated AUD $710,000 - $928,000 . The
organisers of the Solar Decathlon point out the houses in the
competition are unique designs that incorporate cutting edge
technologies; but if mass-produced, their overall costs would likely
decrease significantly.

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