Europe’s biggest agricultural producers are taking up new incentives for solar power to supplement farm incomes as well as help meet renewable energy targets.
The solar panels installations that are called integrated because they are built into the roof rather than superimposed, is booming in France thanks to legislation creating 20-year contracts with strong incentives to sell electricity to the grid. Government guarantees of long-term electricity contracts at an inflation-linked “feed-in” tariff, helped win the scheme bank support. The investment means constructing five enormous sheds covered by 36,000 square meters of solar panels with a capacity to generate 4.5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 4,000 homes. At 0.55 Euros per kWh, integrated solar photovoltaic panels generate nearly twice the revenue of ground-mounted and superimposed solar panels. Another example is a group of 77 cattle breeders in the Aveyron region of south-west France, who formed a company, SAS Adder, to manage the construction of 33,0000 square meters of integrated roof panels on their farms.France whose goal is to have renewable energy make up 23 percent of its energy consumption by 2023 is imitating Germany, Europe’s leader in solar and wind power. The built-in technology is encouraged by the authorities as aesthetically acceptable, in a country where wind farms have been sharply criticized as eyesores.
With US know how, ingenuity, and innovation this could be applied by not only US farmers but by large commercial buildings also.
Source:http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090224.wsolar0224/BNStory/Science/?cid=al_gam_nletter_newsUp
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