SYNSPEC AND ENVIRONMENT

Since end of July 2007 the Synspec building is covered with solar cells. The total covered area is around 400 m2. The photovoltaic (PV) installation has a peak power of 44 KW. The panels are mounted flat, which make them invisible, easier cleaning and it saves costs in mounting the panels.

During sunny summer days the delivered output is around 130 KWh. In the winter is the output during sunny days reduced to 80 KWh. From August till November the yield was 13.7 MWh. This is about one third of Synspecs yearly demand on electrical energy.

The reason Synspec decided to buy a PV installation was that production hall and the top floor offices became to hot during sunny summer days. So an airco was needed but we refused to cool with fossil energy. After evaluating different scenarios PV was the quickest and easiest option.
It appeared however that covering the flat roof with solar panels was enough to keep the roof from heating up under the sun. So we did not need to install the electric coolers (heat pumps) after all.

Now we can laugh about oil prices going sky-high because the return on investment for the solar panels will be better.

Some figures regarding the saving on CO2 emission:
To generate 13 MWh by a coal fired power plant the amount of CO2 exhaust would have been 10.400 kg. (0,8 Kg/KWh)
If we look now at the site of Synspec which is about 5.000 m2, the air column with a height of 20 km (there is practically no CO2 higher then 20 km) gives 100.000.000 m3 of air.
If all of the CO2 was emitted in this column the CO2 concentration would have risen from 400 ppm (the normal concentration) to 454 ppm. This is an increase of 13%.

Above means that solar panels don’t only save CO2 emission but also a lot of money