Rooftop Solar

Happy weekend,

Today I am going to write about an integral part of our Net Zero Energy winery project, rooftop solar PV generation. 

There are many forms of energy, the main forms are chemical, mechanical, thermal, radiant and electrical. Energy cannot be created or destroyed but can be transformed. For example plants convert sun's radiant energy to chemical energy in forms of sugars. Solar photovoltaic panels convert sun's radiant/light energy to electrical energy with around 20% efficiency. 

When we designed our 20,000 sqf winery building in 2010 we had a vision that at some point our building will use only renewable energy in all of its power requirements. Therefore we designed its roof as single slope looking to south that will create maximum exposure to the sun. I was exposed to many jokes where was the other half of the building. We applied twice in 2011 and in 2014 to N.O.T.L. Hydro to install a solar system. Both of our applications were rejected on the basis of their grid capacity constraints. These rejections made me so unhappy and insulted I was going to install a completely off-grid system which means there will be no connection with their electricity system at all. In 2022, I contacted them one more time. Their initial reaction was again similar as they had just lost a large electricity customer (world's largest greenhouse cannabis operation next to us was closed), they said they don't need an energy generator. 

I pushed back and reminded them I was rejected twice and I don't want to be held hostage by their capacity problems. I have been following N.O.T.L. hydro's President Tim Curtis on social media. He is a very progressive and open minded executive and looks into a clean energy future. I also read many publications about the future of electric distribution with localized small energy generation. In a 191 page report of N.O.T.L. Hydro they were even experimenting with very large grid scale batteries to off-set peak power demand. After weeks of e-mails/phone calls I managed to make them verbally agreeing on my grid tied net metered solar project.

With my electrical engineer and solar contractor we started to design our system immidiately as they may change their mind. There was another problem with current Ontario regulations we need to overcome. In grid tied systems, in the event of a grid black out your solar power generation must be cut off in less than one second to make sure there is no live power to electrocute the grid workers. It means on a sunny and hot August day even your system is capable of full electricity generation you are not allowed to use any of it. This problem is generally overcomed by the use of standby diesel/propane generators. But this was against our goal of not burning any fossil fuels at the winery.

After so much research, I came up with an idea of an hybrid Grid-tied and Off-grid system working togather. In this hybrid system 80% of our generation capacity will be grid tied and would be cut off from production in the event of a grid black out. The remaining 20% will be off-grid and will power important equipment like A/C s, internet, POS etc. This system will continue to power with four large state of art batteries (during nighttime until sun comes out next morning). We have not seen such a system anywhere else making it an authentic solution. 

We proposed this $600,000 design to N.O.T.L. Hydro officially under a Capacity Impact Assesment study (costs $5,000). After a 3 months study they finally approved our design and we ordered all the materials and hoping to start installation by mid April.

Our system will generate around 200,000 kWh of clean electricity per year. We will consume 150,000 kWh of this ourselves and will donate 50,000 kWh to Ontario grid without getting any compensation.

Stay well.
Adnan Icel
Owner&Winemaker