Renewable energy, especially the solar generation industry, is developing very rapidly and has already successfully turned into one of the most powerful spheres in the economy of the United States, China, the European Union and India. According to the calculations of scientists, by 2020, the total capacity of all SES will be more than 600 gigawatts. As for Ukraine, in 2017, the pace of development of solar energy has successfully increased and reached the highest levels – in half a year, 132 megawatts of new solar power stations were connected to the general grid, compared to 99 megawatts, which were counted for the whole previous year, and according to the results of the 2- half of the installed capacity can increase by another 360 megawatts.
It should be note that most of all new capacities were represent by large ground SES. In addition, the market for commercial and private roof stations is developing at a much slower rate. Despite the fact that fields of thousands of solar panels are actively increasing in different regions of Ukraine, houses with their own solar generators on the roofs are also something new.
What was the prerequisite for the development and a greater influx of investment in the active development of domestic solar energy in Ukraine?
It can be safely say that the era of stations “beyond the law” has already passed, which operate on dubious tariff plans and conditions. With the help of some changes made to the legislative base, it was possible successfully regulate the issue of the “green” tariff for SES. Moreover, to date, the provision of fully transparent market conditions for private homes and commercial enterprises has greatly simplified this problem. For example, if you make investments through currency, then when you receive a fixed rate for electricity, it is also fix in currency.
At the same time, active growth began immediately after 2014, when everyone watched the decline in the real estate market. At that time, worldwide prices for the purchase of solar power plants decreased, which provided more choice and opportunities for customers. Thus, after investing in the purchase of solar power plants, as well as connecting to the “green” tariff, you can get about 18-20% per year, which means that the project can fully pay off after 4-5 years.
It should be noted that most of the solar energy industry is firmly associated with the future, so realizing such projects, people are even more approached to modern technologies, which is one more reason for this growing popularity of SES. The imposed era of buying and selling is increasingly becoming outdated every day, and the benefits of renewable energy are becoming more and more demanded.
Leading investment associations invest their money in land-based solar power plants, dividing the construction into stages. One part of investors attracts investment flows from the West, and the other – uses its own finances. The obligatory condition for the implementation of such projects remains the availability of land resources and the required capacity of connection to the power system.
At the same time, the sphere of roof SES develops in considerably smaller stages. The aggregate capacity of all these facilities in Ukraine can be measure in tens of megawatts. At the same time, the main problem remains that for today there is a catastrophically lacking professional planned design of SES for rooftop placement, as well as proper and high-quality project management. Despite the fact, that many building owners, even without a green tariff, it is much more appropriate to use solar electricity to cover their own needs.
What problems can arise in the construction of roof solar stations?
Often, users are not aware of the entire amount of work and their complexity in the implementation of installation projects for roof solar panels. In addition, very often they encounter intermediaries who do not have personal design offices. At the same time, this segment is not interesting for large prosperous companies, which are direct to the design and construction of large ground stations.
The main differences between roof SES and ground
If we consider the construction of roof SES by investors, their main advantage is a higher green tariff, as well as the need for less money. This is due to the lack of costs for supporting metal structures. It eliminates the need to search for land for the construction of infrastructure for SES.
Installing roof solar panels, you can significantly reduce the cost of air conditioning and cooling of the building in the summer. At the same time providing for itself a reliable and uninterrupted power supply and increasing the quality of power supply.
The connection of roof stations according to the current green tariff has become a certain driver of a significant increase in the responsibility of the population for the quality of electricity. Most owners of power plants also install special network monitoring systems that provide information on the quality of electricity supply. Thanks to this, it became possible to quickly identify problems and eliminate them before any possible malfunctions occurred.
As for terrestrial SES, during their construction, most of the money is invest in the network equipment and lines that are need to connect to the energy system itself, and not to modernize the electricity networks of settlements. Consumers remain remote from these stations, resulting in increased power losses during transmission and distribution.
