FIT slashed

[Andrew]

I wondered why my Drax shares were doing so well since the market turmoil - healthy dividends too.

[The Natural Philosopher]

shares in DRAX? surely that was sold to EDF along with the nukes?

What ticker code?

[Andy Burns]

LSE:DRX

[Mark]

But it's easy to get it *right*. I assume it's a another broken copy of windows live mail to blame.

On a slightly different note I've just found out that my local (state) school has spent £30,000 installing PV panels. IMHO they should be spending this money on the kids, not be gambling for the future.

They proudly announced they had made £20 on the first day! (A bright sunny one at that).

[dennis]

Ah but that would be £30k on their capital budget and £20 onto their revenue budget. One they can spend on the kids, the other they can't.

[The Other Mike]

British Energy only owned the Nukes and Eggborough, and only the nukes were sold to EDF

Drax was sold by National Power in the late 90's and was owned by a US based company for a number of years before it was floated about five years ago.

[charles]

but they are there first thing in the morning when it's dark and many are used for other activities in the evenings.

[The Other Mike]

But in only 4.109589041095890410958904109589 years they will have got all their money back :)

[Mark]

I assumed that the average daily "earnings" would be half that so just over 8 year payback assuming nothing goes wrong.

I wonder how many KW £30,000 buys?

[The Natural Philosopher]

about 300,000

[Tim Streater]

*Slap*! both of you for being sloppy and not saying kWh.

[Tim Streater]

Interesting. I read it as how many units you could buy before your bill racked up to £30k with the electric company.

[Chris J Dixon]

So the question should have been kWp.

Chris

[Dave Liquorice]

generated

That would have been kWHr not kW, they are not the same thing.

kWHr is a unit of energy, equivalent to 3.6MJ. kW is a "rate of energy expenditure", equivalent to 1000 Joules per second.

[Tim Streater]

I'm well aware of all that, I would have written it kWh, is all.

[Mark]

I did mean power, not energy. I assume solar panels are rated by power?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Oh..let see they are about 3 times more expensive than offshore wind, at about half the capacity factor. So say 5billion a gigawatt? 5,000 a KW? Nampelate capacity only of curse. Lucky to get 10% of that averaged over a year.

[John Rumm]

As many as you like...

what changes is how long you want them for.

[cynic]

Fascinating planning application floated across the table for comment at last nights Parish Council meeting. A local farm wants to put a large system on top of an agricultural building and therefore not permitted development. The application was submitted by the installation company and consisted of a large number of panels on the South facing slope of the roof PLUS another array on the NORTH slope. Methinks someone is going to get their eyes opened if the application is passed and the installation goes ahead! Of course there is a vast difference between putting in an application and completing the installation.

[Chris J Dixon]

I noticed in my local planning applications one for the building of a barn/ animal shelter, on the roof of which it is proposed to mount solar PV panels.

The applicant clearly finds the standard clauses in the Design and Access Statement a bit tedious:

Access The policy or approach adopted to access, and how policies relating to access in relevant local development documents have been taken into account.

"My policy is that users will be expected to make their own way into the development using their own four little legs. There will be no restriction on access as long as they all use the open side and not try to go through the walls."

The planners can't have been too upset - permission granted, and it is now built.

Chris