A report from Australia says the pensioners will see their penions cut when they sell excess solar power to the grid:

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I can image this being the case if some has several hundred solar panels, thus making it into an enterprise. But why punish people for installing a few solar panels on their home…? This report could just as well have come from the Netherlands.

Update:

An astute commenter posted below that the situation is not so black-and-white as described in the movie. Only when large amounts of money are involved, which requires a very large solar installation (depending on the household electricity use) can a pension be party cut when some income limit is crossed. That sounds much more reasonable. It just goes to show, not everything is what it seems.

Satellite image of the oil spill

Things like climate change and resource depletion, like Peak Oil, are to many people not really tangible problems. The exact consequences of these phenomenons and their timelines are not quite clear, and that makes these issues unappealing to (too) many people.

‘Fortunately’ there are more immediate reasons to sharply reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, mainly oil. No one who watches the news will have missed the reports about the drilling rig () that caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil well at the bottom of the ocean is gushing a thousand barrels of crude oil into the ocean since April 24th. Depending on whether or not the oil slick reaches the coast this could turn into one of the worst environmental disasters in years.

It’s probably good to think every once in a while about the fact that these things happen because of our thirst for fossil fuels. It’s not the first, and I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last either, seeing how our reckless quest for the last drops of oil directs the drilling rigs to ever inhospitable places.

Greenchoice booklet (click for enlargement)

Some time ago Greenchoice () asked me if I wanted to participate with an interview for their periodical which they mail to their customers. Of course, I had no problem with that, and a couple of weeks later a reporter called me to interview me.

To be honest, I had forgotten all about is and only thought about it yesterday when someone brought to my attention that my picture and a story were printed in the Greenchoice booklet.

It’s turned out to be a nice piece (they’ve only mirrored my picture) and who knows, it might encourage more people to seriously consider installing solar panels and/or reduce their energy consumption in other ways. I suppose the Greenchoice customers are more energy-conscious than average, but still.

I’m getting famous

Clear blue sky

Last weekend we had beautiful weather, especially for people who collect solar energy, like I do. Not only was there abundant sunshine and no cloud in sight, there also were no contrails at all because of the closure () of nearly all the European airspace.

That’s very inconvenient for all the stuck air travellers, but it’s a blessing for people with solar panels, like me! On clear and sunny days the airplane contrails sometimes change into clouds which partly block the solar radiation, depressing the electricity production of the solar panels.

Our solar panels, with a total maximum power of 2125Wp produced more than 17kWh in the last weekend (yesterday and the day before), which translates to about six or seven days of electricity consumption. That makes me very hopeful for the coming summer

This is yesterdays (Sunday, April 18th, 2010) graph, a clear sunny day

Production 18-04-2010, click for enlargement

The graph is a bit complicated, so here’s some clarification. The horizontal scale shows time of day, and the graph shows clearly that the solar panels started producing some electricity between 6:00 and 7:00, and started shutting down between 20:00 and 21:00.

The left vertical scale shows the production of the solar panels in kW, averaged per hour. This scale belongs to the coloured planes. The 660Wp-installation, which is facing ENE, starts producing early but starts to quit after about 13:00. The sun crosses the roof-ridge at about 14:00 and from that time on this installation hardly does anything for the rest of the day. All the other installations face WSW and only really start producing from about 12:00. The total installation produced it’s maximum power, around 1,1 kW, at or near 14:00.

The right vertical scale shows the cumulative produced energy in kWh, and this scale belongs to the black line. It’s clear to see that the line is at its steepest around 14:00, when production is highest. Yesterday the total installation produced 8,5kWh, almost exactly as much as the day before that.

Days like these are perfect for our solar panels, I can’t wait for the summer to really start!

I’m in the papers again Follow the Hilversum municipality information evening () of three weeks ago about energy efficiency, a local weekly newspaper approached me with the question whether I would like to give an interview for their sustainability page. Of course, I didn’t mind.

The article covers nearly half the page, and the picture is also quite big which is also something I have to get used to for a while. The piece mentions our open house () on May 15th on the occasion of the de Solar Days, this might possible draw more visitors. Anyway, the interview was fun to do, and hopefully it will encourage more people to reduce their energy consumption or maybe even install solar panels.

The full page (PDF, ) can be downloaded here.