Solar cemetery! How the dead can power the living.

The town of Santa Coloma de Gramenet in Spain deserves a prize for most innovative green solution.
It put solar panels on mausoleums in the local cemetery. AP has a slideshow.

The 462 panels produce the equivalent energy to power 60 homes for a year. They cost about $900,000 to install and each year will keep about 62 tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, according to Esteve Serret, director Conste-Live Energy, a Spanish company that runs the cemetery project.

"The best tribute we can pay to our ancestors, whatever your religion may be, is to generate clean energy for new generations. That is our leitmotif," says Serret.

- David Adams, Times staff writer

Comments

[john]

If the cost of solar panels could come down a bit (and efficiency go up) , it seems many homes in Florida could be energy self sufficient. Why isn't more emphasis being put on this? Why doesn't the state or federal government offer some incentives to get this ball rolling?

[Tino]

The state and federal governments do offer significant incentives to build solar, and the cost of solar panels has come down.

From an admittedly simple survey of a few solar installers in the area (i.e. asking around at the Home Expo last week), however, it appears as though they have raised their prices to capture these savings from consumers. The markups that they are quoting in their system prices are incredible.

A quick calculation shows that you would be spending about 20 cents to save each kWh that currently costs about 10 cents.

If you think that's a good investment, I've got a downtown condo to sell you -- cheap!

[Tino]

For this cemetery, the system cost about $900,000. Another story on the topic mentions that the system will generate about 125,000 kWh annually.

Just the financing costs at a super cheap rate of 6% would cost the owner $54,000 a year in interest. That does not include any depreciation on the actual cost of the system -- just interest.

How much is 125,000 kWh of nonfirm power worth? On the open market, about $3,750 (wholesale nonfirm power is worth about 3 cents). If it is used to offset other demand, it could be worth up to $15,000 a year (12 cents is an average retail rate in Florida).

I will refrain from making a snide comment. The math speaks for itself.

People are dying to be a part of this.

[Miki Eto]

Solar is not the way to go if you are purely interested in the financial aspects of alt energy. Its for people who have the money to spend and chose to reduce their footprint. One cheaper and cost/benefit friendly alternative would be to get rid of all your incandescent lights and switch to compact flourescents. And the best way to save money on energy is to use less. Conservation should be the first step.

[savwa]

Savwa is stunned by the lucidity of the initial 4 commentors. Savwa wishes to save the day, by blaming it all on Bush and the gang. People who do their homework should not be allowed to comment here.

[corey]

It seems a good place for a methane gas converter too!

[paminator]

Tino- Good post.

If the 125,000 kWh/yr is correct, then that comes to just over 10,000 kwh/month. At 1000 kWh/month as an average home use of electricity (which I think is actually low, but it seems to be a common choice), that only supports 10 homes, not 60 as claimed in the article.

Assuming 264 panels at 200W/panel gives 53kW installed panel capacity for $900K, or about $17/Watt peak. That's pretty gold-plated pricing compared with an average of $9/W installed. Also, those panels in FL would generate about 264 kWh/day, or about 96,400 kWhr per year. So, I think your number of 125,000 kWh/year is probably correct.

Now, assuming a 25 year life for the panels, and a 6% rate for a $900K loan over 25 years, leads to a payment of $5800 per month. With 10,000 kWh/month of output, that comes to 58 cents per kWhr. Those are pricey electrons!

[Tino]

Remember, this is Spain, so

- the efficiencies will be lower than Florida
- the installed costs will be higher
- the economics, as bad as they look, will be better since their prices are already so high

[paminator]

I just realized that here is another way to calculate the price of carbon.

"They cost about $900,000 to install and each year will keep about 62 tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere..."

If you live in the US, the average carbon emission is 0.08 kg/kwh for electricity. With 125,000 kWh/year generated, that comes to 10.2 tons of carbon per year, or about 38 tons of CO2.

So, for a system with a 25 year life, that comes to about $3500/ton of avoided carbon emissions!!! Al Gore's gotta love that number!

Yet we constantly hear that carbon taxes of $25/ton will make a difference...

This is really quite an illuminating story.