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If you were to use them during nights, you would need a battery capacity to hold 4KWhs of electricity. batteries are needed for night time use.

My father is currently in the process of building a house in India. While we do not have the financial resources (and personal time/energy) to invest in solar powered infrastructure right, I do plan to "upgrade" in 4-5 years when the solar technology gets cheap enough. Is there anything specific that needs to be planned for during the construction to make the upgrade without too much pain later?
Roughly how much area on the terrace would I need to keep aside per kWH (for panels + batteries)?

Place an extra 32mm conduit from the roof area to the main distribution board. If you want to do the whole wiring, treat the solar system as an inverter and proceed accordingly.

In the US, fully installed costs of solar panels come to $5 per watt. In India, the installation cost would be lower, but components are likely to be more expensive. So assume $3 per watt in the next few years. The cost of panels continue to fall but other components have been flat at best. For a 5KW system (typical size recommended in the US), you would be spending $15k. US homes that use solar now spend twice as much (but get subsidies and reimbursement from utility companies as part of Feed in tarriffs).

IMO, the solar panels is not going to make economic sense for the near future in Indian homes.

Solar water heater, on the other hand, is a better and low cost energy saving option.

VWbuggy78;311007IMO, the solar panels is not going to make economic sense for the near future in Indian homes.

But it will give relief from un-ending power cuts and severe voltage fluctuations from grid.

Solar panel is not a cost effective option for powercut related problems unless the powercuts consistently exceed 8 hours a day. You can buy a 5KW inverter (which will charge from the grid) for less than 60 cents per Watt. An inverter can also handle voltage fluctuations. You can insert a $10 overvoltage, under voltage protection in the main distribution board (on the MCCB) and take care of these issues. Whenever the grid voltage fluctuates by more than 10%, your home will revert back to the inverter.

Also a solar panel rated at 5KW usually gives a wattage lower than that. Also it will collect only limited energy during cloudy or monsoon times (when powercuts are more likely).

There is a reason why it is rare to see a solar panel powered home in India. On the other hand, virtually any modern home worth its salt will have an inverter.

VWbuggy78;311163Solar panel is not a cost effective option for powercut related problems unless the powercuts consistently exceed 8 hours a day. You can buy a 5KW inverter (which will charge from the grid) for less than 15 cents a dollar per Watt. An inverter can also handle voltage fluctuations. You can insert a $10 overvoltage, under voltage protection in the main distribution board (on the MCCB) and take care of these issues. Whenever the grid voltage fluctuates by more than 10%, your home will revert back to the inverter.

Also a solar panel rated at 5KW usually gives a wattage lower than that. Also it will collect only limited energy during cloudy or monsoon times (when powercuts are more likely).

There is a reason why it is rare to see a solar panel powered home in India. On the other hand, virtually any modern home worth its salt will have an inverter.

Ya I meant to say for areas with severe power cut. In NCR areas it is not uncommon to have 8-16hrs a day power cut, everyday during hot summer or humid monsoon. In flats they have generator back up (even for AC) but for independent houses, silent generator takes space and is very expensive.

Even with 8- 16 hours of powercut a day, there are less expensive options than spending $4+ per watt to supply residential electricity. However, the math would change if the government offers feed in tarriff and if there is a tax incentive for purchase of the panels. One simple option is to have multiple inverter setup, where you have three sets of 3 - 5KVA inverters, which get charged off separate phases during the 8 hours you do have the power supply.

A better ROI is to make the home more energy efficient so that it does not consume that much energy cooling the place (e.g. aluminum panels for outer walls, heat proofing the terrace and using low E double paned glasses).

The question to ask yourself is this: If solar is a great idea, why isn't everyone doing it?

VWbuggy78;311412Even with 8- 16 hours of powercut a day, there are less expensive options than spending $4+ per watt to supply residential electricity. However, the math would change if the government offers feed in tarriff and if there is a tax incentive for purchase of the panels. One simple option is to have multiple inverter setup, where you have three sets of 3 - 5KVA inverters, which get charged off separate phases during the 8 hours you do have the power supply.

Can these inverters run AC? $4 per KWatt sounds really expensive. That is like Rs 190 per KW. How did you come up with this number?

[QUOTE]The question to ask yourself is this: If solar is a great idea, why isn't everyone doing it?I think lack of infrastructure/vendors to provide it, may be one reason. Another is prohibitive initial cost. Lack of knowledge. Lack of govt initiative. I guess what we need is comparison of silent generator vs solar panels.

May it sound like, a little OFF topic,
but here in USA,
I have installed by myself a very small size, on a mini scale
a portable solar system with 6 solar panels (2 sets ) and it works excellent,
for taking most of the night-time lighting load
( using LEDs ) and running computer monitors,..etc.

( Not expensive at all,... No labor or installation charges reqd.,......
just like those little solar spot lights, you can set it up by yourself. )


It costs only 139 dollars ( 3 panels ) and can buy 1 or 2 car batteries, and power inverter to store the elec. power.

America being a nation of opportunity
with plenty of land, resources, and all project related items easily available at local warehouses, you can do any such small project by yourself , there are some interesting videos for the same, on the YouTube too.
Many people enjoy such small handy projects and it's a fun, knowledge and achievement altogether :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caeEyhJZnTs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwSifiDGS00&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEr31VgGHrc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHVOOXAmtz4

More interesting home-users' videos here, for making something on a small scale by yourself.
Some people use them to run sump pump,
some getting water from well,
some taking it to the beach / camping area while mounting on the truck roof and charging batteries during the day time, using those lanterns at night- time !

All videos here are inspirational, creative, interesting and gives some guide lines how to save money, a bit.

Get some time and watch them all, for creativity and getting the most out from the sun for free !!
It's truly interesting watching such videos !
"Go Green" and good for the planet, self-satisfaction, creativity, fun., savings, application of that engg. knowledge, using the land resources of your back-yard,.. and altogether :)

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=45+watt+solar+panel&aq=f

:thup:

( Some people in my area now a days, even gets professional solar roof installation ( expensive though, for time-being ) and connects it to their elec. meter ( legally )
and now meter turns backwards ( storing more electricity, instead of consuming ) now and the owners get the money back form the electricity company, instead of paying them the bill !! )

...

Returning_Indian,
$4 per watt (not kilowatt) is the upfront investment required. E.g. if you want a 5KW system, you need to spend at least $20k (a few years from now). Now the costs are more like $25 - $30k. If you want to do R&D, there are many companies such as SolarCity that sell them in the US for about $30k for 5KW system (lower wattages are more expensive per watt). Even for them it works because they target community by community rather than isolated homes. The costs are roughly $1.50 for the panel + $2 for electronics (inverter setup) + $3 for installation and systems integration. Panel prices have fallen from $3 a couple of years ago to half as much (or even less for thin film based panels from First Solar). But the other costs have stayed flat.

The problem is not the Indian government. The technology is still evolving. Indian government does offer some subsidies but the up front costs are very high. In India the grid is subsidized. The guys who can use them are farmers (on their fallow or non-agricultural lands). In the city the available real estate for collecting sun is more limited.

There are a bunch of things to consider: (a) Thin film based vs polysilicon based (b) Angle of the panel (c) Amount of insolation and number of hours of sunlight you can get there (d) Square footage available on the roof (e) cost of grid KWh.

One advantage of thin film based panels is that you can use it under cloudier conditions (since it can collect energy even in the infra red spectrum). The big negative is that it is less than half as efficient as polysilicon based panels. So your roof needs to be nearly 3x larger to collect the same energy. Even within polysilicon, you have cylindrical systems (Solyndra), crystalline silicon based ones (Suniva) etc.

This is a vast topic.

Bottom line - Solar panels on Indian roofs will take at least a decade. A faster ramp could occur from concentrated solar power. This can be done in utility scale where you can devote a few hundred acres in the hottest part of Rajasthan and power the entire city. At nights you can back it up with nuclear power. Many of these technologies are still in beta stages.

An even better idea is to get the Iran/Pakistan/India pipeline done. In fact we need to look at all these options.