This week, I’m sharing all of the details on our solar panel project. For the first post, click here.

When we last left off, we finally had an approved application, and we’d made it through a wicked winter. But we were running out of time to complete our panels by the end of our contract.

Preparation

The first step to get ready for the install was an engineering assessment. We had to make sure that the barn was strong enough to hold the weight of the solar panels. Even though the barn is (at best guess) more than a hundred years old, it’s rock solid, so there was no concern there.

The second step was the building permit. Again, there were a couple wrinkles in the application paperwork, but our contractor was able to straighten them out

Installation

The actual solar install finally started at the end of March. First step was the inverters. These “convert the DC (Direct Current) power from your panels to AC (Alternating Current) before feeding it back into the hydro grid.” Our contractor’s web site calls the inverters “the brains” of the system.

Then came the panels. Solar panels work best if they face south. The sun is strongest and hits them most directly from this direction. Fortunately, the back roof of the barn faces exactly south. Given the long delay in our application process, we had lots of time to observe the barn, calculate sun and shadow patterns and determine the optimum position for our panels. We have a long row of very tall pines along the west side of the barn. They’re so tall that in the late afternoon they cast a shadow on the upper barn roof, so we decided to install the panels on the lower lean-to roof as far away from the pines as possible.

Three rows of racks went up on the lean-to, and then came the panels. We have a total of 40 panels, the maximum we’re allowed under the microFIT program. Panel install took about three days.

Connection

After the last panel was installed, it took another two weeks before the snow had melted enough for the trench to be dug between the barn and the hydro pole. Remember we’re feeding all of the power we generate back into the grid, so connecting into the hydro pole was essential.

Of course, it wasn’t simply a matter of waiting for the snow and frost to melt so that the trench could be dug. The trench was more than 300 feet long. Over that distance, we needed a special heavy-duty type of wire, so that we didn’t lose power. Pulling the wire through the trench was another bit of fun. When the trench was dug, the excavator laid a conduit in the bottom. It looks a bit like weeping tile.

There’s a rope running through the pipe. The trench is back-filled and the conduit is completely buried. To get the wire from the panels to the pole, our contractor had to pull it using the rope in the conduit–a heavy, 3-person job.

April 23 was connection day. Inspections had to happen. Power had to be shut off. Wires had to be hooked up. And everything had to be turned back on again. There were two or three different groups involved, along with our contractor. This was another instance where I was very glad for professional help. I would not have wanted to coordinate everyone.

But it turned out all of the scheduling didn’t matter.

Connection was a no-go. The hydro inspector wanted to see the wire and conduit laying in the trench, but the trench was back-filled. The excavator had installed a T with a small section of conduit that looked down to the bottom of the trench and the wire, but that wasn’t enough. A section of the trench had to be dug out down to the wire so that the inspector could see it. Fortunately, the trench was re-excavated April 23, and by April 24 we were connected.

April 25, our contractor came out and walked us through all of the equipment and how it worked. He flipped the breakers and we were live.

In the infamous words of Snap, I’ve got the power!

This post has been a long time coming. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to write this, but it’s finally here. Everything you wanted to know (and more) about our solar system.

… I mean, our solar panel system… the one on the barn… not the one in the sky.

In fact, now that I’ve started writing, I have so much to say that I’m breaking it up into several posts. In today’s post, we start at the very beginning.

How solar works in Ontario

The provincial government operates a program through the Ontario Power Authority to encourage people to install solar panels. The program is called microFIT. It’s micro because it gives people “the opportunity to develop a small or “micro” renewable electricity generation project (10 kilowatts or less in size) on their property.”

Under this program, we enter into a 20-year contract with the government. We produce and deliver electricity to the province’s grid, and we’re paid a guaranteed rate per kilowatt for the term of our contract.

So we’re not “off the grid.” All of the power we generate goes directly back to the grid. We still buy the electricity that powers our house from the grid. This might seem weird to people. I’ll go into the numbers more later this week, but here’s the basic explanation: the government is paying us $0.396 cents per kW for what we generate. We’re paying the government $0.075 cents per kW (off-peak) for what we consume.

Our solar contractor

Once we made the decision that we wanted to go solar, we started meeting with contractors. Given how the microFIT program works in Ontario, lots of companies are full-service when it comes to solar installs. They take care of all of the applications to the government, they install the system, they monitor your system, they fill out all the paperwork along the way, they arrange for all of the inspections, they even help you apply for financing if you need it.

We found companies to contact through road side signs (there are lots of solar installations in our area). The company that we chose is called Hayter. Hayter had great service, had been around for a long time, offered a decent price, and the people we met with were very knowledgeable and down to earth.

Application process

This was not a quick project. We met with Hayter for the first time in July 2013, liked them and decided to go with them. They submitted our application to the government. Our application was rejected about three times due to minor clerical errors. The microFIT forms are very complicated and missing even the smallest check box causes your whole application to be thrown out. We were very glad to have an experienced company working with us and taking care of all of the paperwork. I cannot imagine having to figure that out on my own.

Finally, our application went through. But that wasn’t the end of the bad news. In September, the government suspended the program. They were going to re-evaluate the rate that they paid per kW. When the microFIT program first started, the government paid about $0.80 per kW. When we applied, the rate was $0.55. The suspension meant that our application was dead, again. After re-evaluation in September, the new rate was $0.396. The decrease was very disappointing for us, but we decided to proceed anyways. We’d still be earning more for what we generated than we were spending on buying electricity from the grid.

We resubmitted our application. By mid-October, we got the good news that we were in. October 31, we made our first payment to our contractor, and they paid all of the fees with the government. And then came five months of nothing. Our solar company had said that they could work through the winter and complete our install before spring. However, the winter of 2013-14 wasn’t a normal winter. Between polar vortexes, ice storms and snow, nothing could happen.

Under the terms of our agreement with the government, we had six months to complete our install. That gave us until April 30. As spring slowly rolled around, we anxiously waited for work to begin.

Ooooh. Such a cliff hanger ending. Tune in next time to find out if installation begins and whether we meet the deadline.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments, and I’ll do my best to answer them in upcoming posts.