- Anyone who believes that exponenetial growth can go forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist. - Kenneth Boulding (c. 1980) ...
- “Much attention is paid to new energy technologies, with good reason. But it also is important to know that most of today’s liquid fuels come from fields that have been producing for decades. More than 95 percent of the crude oil produced today was discovered before the year 2000. About 75 percent was discovered before 1980.” (Note: From ExxonMobil’s 2012 Outlook for Energy report.) ...
- “If the inevitability of peak oil is ignored and the event overtakes us unprepared, the unintended consequences could easily spiral into a sequence of ever-worsening conditions that would create not just twilight in Saudi Arabia, but twilight also for the lifestyles we all now enjoy.” (Note: This quote is from Simmons’ book “Twilight in the Desert.” Matthew Simmons passed away August 8, 2010.) ...
- It took us 125 years to use the first trillion barrels of oil. We'll use the next trillion in 30. Chevron Advert "Will you join us" ...
- Energy will be one of the defining issues of this century. One thing is clear : the era of easy oil is over. What we do next will determine how well we meet the energy needs of the entire world in this century and beyond.” July 2005 David J O’Reilly, Chairman & CEO, Chevron Corporation ...
- "I think OPEC is about maxed out. when people talk about spare capacity in OPEC, I don't see it. I just don't see it coming through and I'm not sure it's there. And it's not just that they're greedy, but they're really producing what they can produce. John Hofmeister, former President of Shell Oil interviewed on CNBC, February 2012 ...
- "The real problem is that we use too much oil. It's that simple and that difficult. If we truly want to reduce our vulnerability to high prices, the best way to do so is to reduce consumption." — Richard Heinberg, author of Peak Everything ...
- "Technology is great, but it can't find what's not there. In the last five years, we consumed 27 billion barrels of oil a year, but the oil industry discovered only three billion barrels a year. So only one barrel was replaced for every nine we used!" — L.B. Magoon report for U.S. Geological Survey, as quoted in E Magazine ...
- "In my humble opinion, we should now have reached peak oil. So it is high time to close this critical chapter in the history of international oil industry and bid the mighty peak farewell." — Ali Samsam Bakhtiari, Vice President of the National Iranian Oil Company ...
- "We've run out of good projects. This is not a money issue... If these oil companies had fantastic projects, they'd be out there developing new fields." — Matthew Simmons, author of Twilight in the Desert ...
- "We are not good at recognizing distant threats even if their probability is 100%. Society ignoring [peak oil] is like the people of Pompeii ignoring the rumblings below Vesuvius." — James Schlesinger, former US Energy Secretary ...
- "I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that." — Thomas Edison, 1931 ...
- "As we head to war with Iraq, President Bush wants to make one thing clear: This war is not about oil. It's about gasoline." — Jay Leno ...
- "My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel." — attributed to Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emir of Dubai ...
Commercial Solar water heating is one of, if not the best investment in your business. It makes sense not just on a financial basis but as great advertising for your business.
The list of suitable projects is extensive.
- Car Wash
- Solar Pool Heating
- Other uses for solar
Solar water heating on car washes are possibly even more effective than than for swimming pools.
- In Southern Alberta we have the most year round sunshine in Canada. Most people wash their cars on a nice sunny day - this works out great because this is when the solar system is working to its maximum performance.
- Car washes tend to cover large areas with flat roofs making installation simple.
- Car washes also are normally only one story high, making installation simple.
The photo here is a solar car wash in Kingston, Ontario, who have 18 x 30 tube Latitude51 Solar collectors on,
The installer said this about the system....." Those evac tube collectors are amazing. With our pump they are a perfect match. By 7:40 am yesterday (20th June 2011) the pump began to send 40 degree C fluid to the heat exchanger. By 10:54 am it was coming into the heat exchanger at 89 degree C.... "
This Car Wash is powered by a "Solar Bubble Pump". It was installed on a car wash in Kingston Ontario by a company called Bubble Action Pumps, this pump is made of glass, has no moving parts and can never wear out. It simply pumps water round the solar hot water system on the roof of the car wash in Kingston Ontario.
It is perfectly suited to any "offgrid" application and is an incredible invention. This car wash has 18 x 30 tube collectors on it. The collectors were supplied by "Latitude51 Solar" . The Bubble Pump was supplied and installed by Bubble Action Pumps.
Solar Pool Heating
Solar swimming pool heaters are the best and most effective way of heating swimming pools. The large volume of water in the poolsmake solar the perect way to heat the pools.
Swimming Pools cost a lot of money to Heat. Using our Solar collectors will save you $1000's per year on the Pool heating Costs especially if you want to heat the pool in spring or fall or even winter. These systems can pay back within a couple of pool seasons. Depending on your local fuel rates the payback could be even faster.
Please do not confuse these Evacuated Tube Solar Collectors with unglazed solar pool heaters. These evacuated tube pool heaters produce vast amounts more heat than the unglazed types. Unglazed types are made of rubber type material and ONLY work when the ambient temperature is warmer than the pool. The unglazed pool heaters are great if you live in a warm climate (Florida, San Diego, Hawaii etc). The unglazed heaters are cheaper to purchase and are very efficient when the outside temperature is warmer than the water you are trying to heat but in cold and cloudy climates they are terrible.
Evacuated tube collectors can collect heat from the sun even when it is -40 Deg C outside.
You do not even need a huge number of evacuated tube collectors. 3 x 30 tube collectors are enough to heat a residential indoor pool (38 ft x 18 ft) for more or less the whole year. There are variables of course which mean commercial pools will need more collectors but the result is the same.
Solar laundromats
A high hot water use makes Laundromats another great candidate for solar water heating.
Industrial Process
Breweries, Food processing, steam processes in fact any process that needs hot water or steam, solar can be used to preheat the water.
Hair salon and Spa
This picture is of a Hair Salon & Spa in Calgary the day the system was made operational. It has 8 x 30 tube collectors heating the water for the business.
Solar Tax Credits
50% Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance for Clean Energy Generation
A 50% accelerated CCA is provided under Class 43.2 of Schedule II to the Income Tax Regulations for specified clean energy generation equipment. Eligible equipment includes solar thermal, solar air and solar pho- tovoltaic equipment while project size restrictions have been eliminated. Class 43.2 was intro- duced in 2005 and is currently available for assets acquired on or after February 23, 2005 and before 2012.
Latitude51 Solar collectors received the highest rebate of any of the other main suppliers of collectors we looked at under the canadian ecoENERGY Incentive program.
This Commercial solar incentive program effectively ended 1st OCTOBER 2010. All applications had to be in before this date .There is always a possibility that the government ecoENERGY Grant will be renewed in some form in the future. Right now we have no idea if or when this will happen. Please leave your contact details via the sign up box (upper right) and we will keep you updated on any future commercial incentives that are available.
The Canadian Government ecoENERGY program for commercial solar water heating ended in March 2011. This program was set up to promote commercial solar water heating projects in Canada.
Note: There were 16 solar water heating projects in Canada between 400 m2 in size, up to 840 m2 in size approved under this grant. These were the largest solar water heating projects in Canada.
Of these 16 projects...
....14 projects used Evacuated Tubes, Latitude51 Solar Supplied one of these projects.
.... the other 2 used Flat Plate collectors.
Please use the sign up link to leave your email with us. If any of these commercial grants are re introduced in the future we will let you know.
Why Commercial Solar Water Heating ?
....because this is where your best returns are. Evacuated Tube Solar Collectors will produce hot water for you FREE of charge for many years to come.
With residential Systems, the size of the system is limited by the low demand of hot water. If the family goes away on holiday, you need to have in place a system to dump the excess solar heat when no one is using it.
Commercial Solar Systems are different. The amount of heat used in most commercial applications is usually so large that you are not going to have an issue with dumping heat. It is likely that only 5% to 50% of the total hot water will be provided by Solar. This means the system works very efficiently, if the sun is shining then all the Solar Heat is going to be used.
The systems work more or less exactly the same as residential systems, except they are larger in scale.
Its like buying a piece of machinery for your business. To maximize the revenue you get from that equipment, you want it to be working all the hours possible. There is not much point buying it, if it only works for a couple of hours a day. The same applies to Solar - with commercial solar applications your heat demand is usually so large the solar will be supplying you FREE heat from morning to night.
Engineering Design for Solar Water Heating
If you want to discuss a commercial solar water heating project, contact us and let us know some details about your project.
We will call you to discuss your project. The next step should you wish to proceed would be a preliminary engineering study to determine the scope of the project. This can take the form of two routes. Either.....
- A Simple Cost Analysis - we will review the requirements for your project, the energy loads, space on the roof for collectors etc. We will take into account the grants available to you and provide you with a report detailing the likely Return on Investment based on the information you provide. This will involve a few hours work for both you and us. A range of costs will be estimated for various ROI. There will be a charge for this service at our standard Rates.
- A Detailed Engineering Study - This study will involve a comprehensive review of your commercial solar project site, location, energy demands etc. This study will involve a 3 or 4 days work depending on the size of your project and will likely cost a few thousand dollars. However this report should give you estimated costs the total project cost. An estimate for this work will be provided following the first few initial conversations based on the nature of your project. This study will become part of the engineering drawings that you will need for any larger commercial project.
Solar BTU's per Day
Our collectors produce the best cost per BTU of any collectors we can find. This table shows the output of our collectors in a few different climates compared to other solar collectors. This data was produced using Retscreen which is the only way to accurately compare different collectors.
This is not just "marketing" info, you can reproduce this data by using Retscreen Do not believe the power output of Solar Collectors unless the power is calculated using a program that takes into account local weather data (such as Retscreen)
Basically a small hotel was taken and the number of collectors required for a specific amount of heat was calculated (BTUs produced is approx the same for each climate region) but the number of collectors required to produce that heat varies a lot. For example for calgary, 55 x Latitude51 Solar collector are required versus, 84 Apricus AP30 collectors or 93 Enerworks TL collectors. Only the Mazdon 30 collectors come close to the power output of ours. Now you would have to ask how much a Mazdon Collector would cost!
Why use Evacuated Tube Collectors for commercial applications?
The answer is real life experience - Evacuated tubes produce more heat.
The Canadian Government ecoENERGY program for commercial solar water heating ended in March 2011. This program was set up to promote commercial solar water heating projects in Canada.
There were 16 solar water heating projects in Canada between 400 m2 in size, up to 840 m2 in size approved under this grant. These were the largest solar water heating projects in Canada. To give you an idea of the scale, a 500 m2 system would be over 3200 tubes.
Of these 16 projects...
- ....14 projects used Evacuated Tubes, Latitude51 Solar Supplied one of these projects.
- .... the other 2 used Flat Plate collectors.
Draw your own conclusions from this, commercial projects want heat, lots of it, and 88% of all the biggest projects in Canada used Evacuated tubes! as these produce more heat in cold and cloudy conditions that are typical in Canada.
Newsletter Sep 2010 - Demystifying the Solar Thermal Market
Not all ecacuated tube solar collectors are created equal. The table above shows you the difference in buying one type over another. Yes I know, your thinking they just put their collector at the top of the table - well read this article "Demystifying the solar thermal market" to find out how you can replicate this table using Retscreen.
