Category: Electrons

  • Heating 100 litres with a Heat Pump

    While seeking options to reduce my electricity bill, I was recommended to consider a heat pump which purportedly would consume much less energy than my geyser. In this post, I will share how I used Chat GPT to quickly learn about heat pumps and evaluate the potential savings on energy. What’s A Heat Pump So…

  • Do We Have a Business Case

    In this blog, I present a novel method for analyzing the finances of power plant operations, geared towards investors and entrepreneurs focusing on the viability of a business case. A Different Approach My approach to financial modeling is different to traditional model as follows. Complex and Obscure. Traditional financial models in the energy sector tend…

  • Calculating the Solar Irradiance

    As I delved deeper into solar pv design, I felt the need to understand and reproduce how the solar pv power output given on websites such as the Global Solar Atlas and the NREL NSRDB is calculated. Solar pv panels converts solar irradiance to power. Thus the first step is to understand solar irradiance. Solar…

  • Designing a fit for purpose PV + BESS system

    Discussing various residential and commercial PV + BESS systems, I observed a common gap in understanding among users, and even designers of these systems. This gap pertains to the basics of PV energy production, the importance of defining a load profile, and the design process of a PV system tailored to meet this profile within…

  • Simulating a Solar Power Plant

    I’ve been designing and simulating power plants with spreadsheets. I found spreadsheets to be quite effective for steady-state or average performance modeling, but I struggle when it comes to modelling rapid, real-time variations, such as the sudden drop in solar irradiance due to cloud cover and changing the configuration of the power plant takes some…

  • Half a Billion $$ for 25MW on H2

    Picture this: After discussing couple of options on energy solutions, a potential customer excitedly showed me slides of a concept to turn wastewater into a power source, complete with hydrogen production and fuel cells churning out electricity for their industrial operation at a competitive cost of electricity.  He was convinced, or someone convinced him, that…

  • Solar More Expensive Than Diesel …

    Electricity produced by solar PV is often touted as significantly cheaper than alternatives like diesel-generated power. However, this perspective can be misleading for those not well-versed in the topic. Solar power’s cost-effectiveness deserves a closer look, especially when we factor in certain constraints. When we compare solar power plants to diesel power plants, it’s crucial…