What’s solar energy?
How does the solar energy system works?
What are the components of solar energy?
May you don’t know us yet, let’s have a quick introduction: we’re ERA architects.
Actually, I’m Esther Rovira, architect and passive house designer in Barcelona, Catalonia and Andorra for either passive houses, efficient houses and positive houses.
In this post ‘Solar energy in Spain and price, you’ll find handy info such as: kW needed, panels needed, 4 important things to consider and price for solar energy of your positive house.
I hope it helps you! Let’s go!
Our positive houses use solar energy as a renewable energy.
The main reason is that Spain has plenty of Sunshine during the year to cover almost all of the energy needs of our clients’ positive houses.
Remember that a positive house running with solar energy generates all the energy needed on a sunny day.
How many kW do I need for my positive house?
Remember you will never be 100% off grid only with solar energy. If interested to be off-grid completely, then you need an alternative source of renewable energy (we’ll be posting soon about this).
The amount of energy needed depends on how much energy you need to cover and how much sunshine your location is able to capture (specially in winter when there’s less sun hours). So if you need to count all your kW needed in order to cover that electricity consumption. That means counting the kW of machines, appliances and other gadgets. By machines we mean the energy needed by the machines delivering hot water, heating-cooling and ventilation. By appliances, well you know: fridge, freezer, washing machine, stove, dishwasher, oven, microwave, blender, coffee machine… you name it. Finally by gadgets we mean those gadgets that could be highly electricity consuming that we need to take into account. For example: electric car, electric motorbike or bicycle, even a hairdryer should be taken into account.
However I know you need a number, so I’m giving it to you. Our last positive house of 292m2 with very efficient machines and appliances and electric car, needed 12,88kwp, an inverter of 12kwp and a battery for 10kwp.
How many solar panels are needed to be self-sufficient?
According to our example above, to produce 12,88kwp, you’ll need 28 photovoltaic panels of 460wp with 120 cells made of monocrystalline silicon and working with PERC technology (Passive emitter rear).
In order to deliver such an amount of panels, there are 4 aspects you need to take into account when installing solar energy systems in Spain.
1) Roof matters
Where will you install all these panels?
A flat top roof is the best place to install this type of panel in Spain.
For the house above we needed a 100m2 flat roof.
However if you cannot locate them on the rooftop, then you could also locate them on the ground or on a pergola. On ground is a great option if you have lots of square metres of land. On a pergola could be tricky, since they could count as a built surface, then could probably exceed the maximum build surface and also pay more taxes annually for build property.
The best orientation for Spain to capture most of the Sun’s energy along the day is South.
2) Regulations
Each plot in Spain has a different urban planning regulation that indicates the architectural design rules to follow. Sometimes this means that you’re not able to have a flat roof or even that your solar panels cannot be seen from the street.
This has forced us to install solar panels at a lower degree angle so they are not seen from the street.
While in the previously mentioned project the most efficient angle was 45º, we were forced to install the photovoltaic panels at 15º due to urban regulations.
If you install photovoltaic panels at 45º, mind the wind. The structure will need to be stronger than installing it at 15º.
3) Permits
When installing more than 10kwp, then you need an engineer to sign the photovoltaic project.
Most installers have their own engineer.
If you need to install less than that, then you can save the engineer services (around 3000€+tax).
4) Subsidies
During 2022 and early 2023, there are subsidies to install photovoltaic panels for existing houses and new houses.
What’s the price of photovoltaic panels?
To install sufficient solar energy for a positive house of around 300m2 you’ll need to spend at least 20.000€+10%tax.
This considers a low energy consumption house that follows the passive house standards, has very efficient machines and appliances and doesn’t have extra high electricity consumption gadgets (despite from an electric car).
This solar energy price includes: 28 panels (460wp, PERC tech), 28 support units with reinforcing support, 2 inverters of 6kw with total 2mppt, electric meter and all needed electrical material, transport-delivery-installation and the engineer project and permits.
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Our other post:
Hope this post ‘Solar energy in Spain and price’ is helpful!
Best of luck on this adventure.
See you on the next post,
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