Irina Rogalskikh, a resident of the regional center Shipunovo, was the first in the Altai Territory to install a solar microelectric power station on her site. Now the music teacher not only supplies her home with electricity, but also supplies energy to the general grid. Free for now.
Exactly a year ago, Irina Rogalskikh decided to join “green” technologies and installed a complex of solar panels with a capacity of 5 kWh on her site to provide electricity to her half of the house.
– We studied the market, calculated the capacity and came to the conclusion that it is not necessary to install solar batteries, as many do, but the grid complex, – the owner of microgeneration told the RG correspondent. – And not cheap Chinese, but domestic. We chose micro SPP, which are assembled in Cheboksary from imported components. The manufacturer promises that it will work for 25-30 years. The solar complex cost a lot – almost 400 thousand rubles: 340 thousand equipment plus delivery of 25 thousand and installation of 30 thousand rubles. They did not put the station on the roof, it is very heavy. I had to build a special shed on metal piles next to the house.
– Of course, for me these are big expenses – I took a loan from the bank, – says Irina Sergeevna. – I very much hoped that the new legislation on the development of “green” energy would provide for state support for those who install solar generation. But apart from buying the surplus and being exempt from paying taxes when selling them, there is nothing there.
Large energy suppliers support such alternative projects without fear of competition from microgenerations. Thus, the grid company Altaykrayenergo has connected the Shipunovskaya microSES to its grids.
“In the future, such micro-generation facilities will become widespread,” says the head of the enterprise, Sergei Prib. – Today, the most affordable way to get alternative energy is to install a grid-type solar power plant.
The surplus payment scheme in the region is now being tested at the facility of Irina Rogalskikh. Although the microstation has been operating for a year, its owner has not yet received anything for the energy given to the general grid. The mechanism for buying electricity from individuals was approved only in March this year. In September, the grid company at its own expense installed meters at the microSES, which show how much solar energy went to the house, and how much to the grid, and entered into an agreement with the owner. True, there are no specific figures at what price the rural teacher will buy the surplus. The energy company explained that according to the law, only the difference between the amount of energy supplied to the general grid and the amount consumed is paid.
– The solar station in the daytime directs electricity primarily to the house, and if it is not in demand in the house, then the surplus goes to the centralized network, – said Sergei Prib. – If in a month more electricity is supplied to the general grid than received, then we will pay this difference at the price calculated taking into account the cost of electricity on the wholesale market.
At such a low-power plant like Irina Rogalskikh’s – 5 kWh – you won’t earn much on surplus. Almost all energy is spent on their own needs.
In the future, such stations will be very popular.
– To sell solar energy, you need to take a more powerful station – by 10-15 kWh, – suggests Irina Sergeevna. – But we did not set ourselves such a goal, so we took a small station. During the year, the station produced 5,000 kilowatts. This is not enough even for a small house of 69 “squares”. The problem is that electricity is supplied unevenly – only during the day and on sunny days, and we spend more in the evening and in cloudy weather, we have to dump the surplus during the day, and take electricity from the general network in the evening. Of course, this is not very profitable.
How soon a rural teacher will be able to recoup the costs of installing a microelectric power station, even experts cannot yet say. It depends on the volume of supplied and consumed energy and its cost. And since they change every year, it is necessary to observe the operation of the station for several years in order to calculate the payback. Skeptical fellow villagers of Irina Rogalskikh are sure that such expenses will never pay off and she just threw the money down the drain, or rather, into the sun.
Feed on rays
Pavel Arkhipov’s Ladder Cottage (pictured) in the town of Berezovsky near Yekaterinburg differs from neighboring houses in the private sector primarily in its roof. A row of solar panels glittering on the tiles can be seen from afar. A 27-year-old Ural citizen became interested in sources of alternative energy ten years ago.
Photo: Tatiana Andreeva
– I even had to reconsider my lifestyle. Became an energy economist, – Pavel confessed to us. – I try to have time to do my best while the sun is shining. I start the washing machine, vacuum cleaner. Everything works until sunset so that the batteries, where energy from solar panels is stored, does not discharge. We send the accumulated money for sale.
He even had to increase the scale of his power plant so that not a single ray was lost: to the eight panels on the roof, Pavel added three more on the facade of the house. Two – to collect the evening rays, and one – for autonomous operation in the yard when it gets dark. And there, the rational energy consumption is already commanded by the motion sensor. It has not yet been possible to make full money on the sale of energy, which was given by the sun, but the cost of electricity has decreased. In May, the Arkhipov family consumed 270 kW, and supplied 62 to the grid, in June they used 320 kW, and supplied 74.
– In terms of money, it’s still a plus, – Pavel reveals to us the budget alignment. – If less was sent to the general network than the family consumed, then I pay the difference at the established rate: four rubles 25 kopecks per kilowatt. But for each “solar” kilowatt bought from us, the power grid company transfers us two and a half rubles.
Pavel is not the only pioneer in the Urals. The federal law on the development of microgeneration (No. 471-FZ), which provides that the owners of small “green” power plants with a maximum capacity of no more than 15 kilowatts can sell surplus to the grid, was adopted in Russia at the end of December 2019. And six months later, the first pilot project was launched in the garden of 85-year-old Valentina Koryukova from the town of Sysert.
Photo: Tatiana Andreeva
The son of a pensioner Dmitry gave the good for the experiment. Batteries and all the digital stuffing are grouped in a small hallway of Valentina Ivanovna’s modest wooden house. In a simple way – in the hallway. And a smart multi-tariff meter was hung on the power line pole near the hut. He sent online daily reports to the phone and computer of Dmitry living in Yekaterinburg: how much has arrived and, conversely, has left.
– And imagine, even at night the batteries are working out something, – Dmitry admitted to the “RG” correspondent. – Mom not only has enough for a trouble-free life, but the sale on the card drops from one and a half to two thousand rubles every month!
Investments were, of course, sensitive to enter the project. The Koryukovs, for example, required more than three hundred thousand rubles for the purchase of equipment. According to Dmitry’s calculations, everything should pay off in eight years.
Svetlana Dobrynina, Sverdlovsk region
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