Well, as long as everyone else has hijacked my thread, there's little reason for me not also to do so:
I can supply a REAL LIVE demonstration of the viability of PV panels at today's energy price points. Our minuscule community of Paxson, AK has had for 51 years its own community generator to supply electricity to the "downtown" area. That included small consumers like Sebastian's cabin across the road, large consumers like the DOT compound and the AT&T maintenance shop, and medium consumers like our business.
The last generator was a 230kW diesel CAT and, very typical of gensets of this magnitude, burned about 150-200 gallons of fuel each day. 1 US gallons per kW per 24 hours is a good rule of thumb for generators of the small-scale commercial size (from 20kW - 1,000kW).
Now, in our part of the world, there are zero state or federal subsidies for power gneration. So those of us on this grid were exposed to 100% of the true costs of running this plant. The operator was not amortiziing plant & equipment - to say nothing of either deferred or future maintenance! - so the $3-4.50/gallon price of diesel #2 in summer and #1 in winter is what he had to recoup. And this is ULSD, the same we have to put in our road vehicles.
So, in the "utility's" final year, which ended about 24 months ago (at which time we all rebelled and went on our own systems), FULL PRICE for our electricity ranged from US$2.50 to $4.15 for every single kilowatt-hour. Multply THAT by what on each and every one of your monthly utility bills and watch your under garments. THAT shows you the real price of electrical production (again: JUST variable cost - NOT full cost).
Because of this, and even at Latitude 63º, in one of the cloudier parts of Alaska, it became economically absolutely sensible to install not only a full-sized bank of PV panels, but to emplace the monstrous battery bank I have shown in other threads' photos (9,000 lbs) AND a 16kW commercial inversion system. Plus the cost of 260' of 3/0 copper wiring and other incidentals. OUR PAYBACK period is going to be about eight years.
So to those who snort about faulty economics and shoddy ROIs and NPVs: it is not until you can compare a "pure" electrical production cost profile against a home solar set-up that you can make an accurate assessment. That is absolutely precisely what our real-life situation here did. And if here high in the Alaska Range, we can do it economically , well over 99.9 percent of humanity also can do it. Right now, today.
Our situation, by the way, takes into account ONLY market prices. It does NOT factor in the externalities that absolutely do exist. So, even though those ARE real, and ARE calculable, PV production with battery storage - not as backup but as part of an off-grid integral system is already justifiable.
So....I idn't hijack my thread after all; rather, I have re-inforced my initial post. There are ZERO economic reasons that not only the consumption of fossil hydrocarbons for locomotive use be ended today, but also that for electrical production.
You have my permission to cite this post any time someone tries to use the bromide "it's possible that might work in Arizona, but not in (Indiana/Minnesota/Maine/Quebec)places with less insolation". Not true.
I can supply a REAL LIVE demonstration of the viability of PV panels at today's energy price points. Our minuscule community of Paxson, AK has had for 51 years its own community generator to supply electricity to the "downtown" area. That included small consumers like Sebastian's cabin across the road, large consumers like the DOT compound and the AT&T maintenance shop, and medium consumers like our business.
The last generator was a 230kW diesel CAT and, very typical of gensets of this magnitude, burned about 150-200 gallons of fuel each day. 1 US gallons per kW per 24 hours is a good rule of thumb for generators of the small-scale commercial size (from 20kW - 1,000kW).
Now, in our part of the world, there are zero state or federal subsidies for power gneration. So those of us on this grid were exposed to 100% of the true costs of running this plant. The operator was not amortiziing plant & equipment - to say nothing of either deferred or future maintenance! - so the $3-4.50/gallon price of diesel #2 in summer and #1 in winter is what he had to recoup. And this is ULSD, the same we have to put in our road vehicles.
So, in the "utility's" final year, which ended about 24 months ago (at which time we all rebelled and went on our own systems), FULL PRICE for our electricity ranged from US$2.50 to $4.15 for every single kilowatt-hour. Multply THAT by what on each and every one of your monthly utility bills and watch your under garments. THAT shows you the real price of electrical production (again: JUST variable cost - NOT full cost).
Because of this, and even at Latitude 63º, in one of the cloudier parts of Alaska, it became economically absolutely sensible to install not only a full-sized bank of PV panels, but to emplace the monstrous battery bank I have shown in other threads' photos (9,000 lbs) AND a 16kW commercial inversion system. Plus the cost of 260' of 3/0 copper wiring and other incidentals. OUR PAYBACK period is going to be about eight years.
So to those who snort about faulty economics and shoddy ROIs and NPVs: it is not until you can compare a "pure" electrical production cost profile against a home solar set-up that you can make an accurate assessment. That is absolutely precisely what our real-life situation here did. And if here high in the Alaska Range, we can do it economically , well over 99.9 percent of humanity also can do it. Right now, today.
Our situation, by the way, takes into account ONLY market prices. It does NOT factor in the externalities that absolutely do exist. So, even though those ARE real, and ARE calculable, PV production with battery storage - not as backup but as part of an off-grid integral system is already justifiable.
So....I idn't hijack my thread after all; rather, I have re-inforced my initial post. There are ZERO economic reasons that not only the consumption of fossil hydrocarbons for locomotive use be ended today, but also that for electrical production.
You have my permission to cite this post any time someone tries to use the bromide "it's possible that might work in Arizona, but not in (Indiana/Minnesota/Maine/Quebec)places with less insolation". Not true.
....and LED & cfl lights take precious little juice, then we really have ridiculously low elec demand in many of the winter months: well pump, mostly. And those Absolyte IIp batteries are very, very good at keeping a charge (I wonder how TMC/SCTY's battery bank would do here? Would love to have the opportunity to test it/them...). 
