Geschrieben von Good news: We found a possibility to build a larger solar power plant than we initially thought possible!
Last December, the owners voted for constructing a solar power plant on the roof of our building. However, at the time, we thought that when accounting for all the fire code demands and distance requirements for the lighting protection equipment on the roof, we only had room for about 80-85 kilowatt peak hours. This is a bit too small for the electricity demand of our building – and electricity demand will most likely increase in the future (charging electric cars, running AC cooling in the summer, etc).
We have found a way to upgrade the size of our power plant! This will increase the power production of the solar plant as well as the annual revenues that WEG receives from electricity sales to residents.
So at the upcoming owners meeting on June 14, we can vote on whether we want to upgrade the size of our solar power plant by approx. 35%. The cost of the upgrade is approx. €29.000 (approx. €150-300 per unit).
- updated offer from Alva with the increased plant size
- details/calculations by Vincent Thevenin regarding upgrade effects
- full details on Solar Plant (offers, contracts with Alva, economic projections)
Background info:
It was discovered that in several places, lightning rods were sticking out of the walls NOT connected to anything… (-> Photo album with the issues). Therefore, Körner/Mr. Brodmerkel hired a company specializing in lightning protection to inspect our building and to verify if our lightning protection system actually works.
As it turned out during the inspection, our lightning protection system is operational – but has serious flaws in how it was planned and constructed. Work orders for necessary minor repairs (connecting the loose lightning rods) have already been issued. But the installer of our system threw a random collection of extremely expensive and unnecessary equipment on the roof – in a configuration that isn’t even capable of producing the premium functionality!
On the roof, we have a completely excessive level of ligthning protection that is more adequate for a data center or a building with sensitive scientific instruments. On the roof, we have an insulated system (meaning that all lighning rods are insulated, so you can touch them during a lightning strike… However, because of faulty construction, the insulation doesn’t work and would require expensive fixes.
In all inhabited levels below the roof, we have only regular lightning protection that is appropriate for a residential building like ours (non-insulated lightning rods that connect to balcony rails/metal sheets covering the building).
So we have a completely unnecessary and extremely expensive equipment on the roof (to the tune of €100.000) – that doesn’t work as intended, needs repairs AND blocks large areas of the roof that cannot be used for our solar power plant.
So instead of repairing the existing system (which we don’t need), the specialized company has developed a proposal for us to vote on, which includes…
- to remove all unnecessary components (mainly the thick specially insulated cables running across the roof)
- thereby making room for more solar power
- to reconfigure the remaining parts (the “antennas”) to match the system installed in the rest of the building (which will guarantee a standard level of lightning protection appropriate for a residential building like ours)