Because the church does not want to incur any debt in order to finance an installation, instead

Because the church does not want to incur any debt in order to finance an installation, instead preferring to use money from gifts or a trust fund, we performed our calculations with a 100% down payment. By analyzing the historical values of the Consumer Price Index we felt that an inflation rate of 3.29% was a good long term estimation, especially considering the estimated 25 year lifespan of a photovoltaic system. The Energy Information Administration predicts that the cost of energy will increase at a rate of 0.6% over inflation. Evaluating various sized installations using the information above yielded similar economic results across system sizes. Without the additional income provided by renewable energy credits, the investment turns positive after 22 years. With renewable energy credit income, this figure drops to 19 years. The investment potential of a photovoltaic system was found to be largely tied to the overall cost per watt figure cited by installers. If this figure were to drop, the nature of the investment could change significantly. For example, if the overall price per watt were to drop to $6.50, even without renewable energy credit income, the investment would become economical in 15 years. The cost of electricity and how fast this cost is expected to rise also impacts the investment. For each additional 0.6% of estimated increase in electricity, one year is deducted from the investment breakeven point. Our recommendation to the church was to delay the purchase of a photovoltaic system. Although the investment would become economical after a period of time shorter than the lifespan of the system, its economic benefit would not be substantial. In addition to this, the costs of photovoltaic panels are expected to drop significantly in the near future, causing an investment taken in a few years to be substantially more beneficial.

Table of Contents
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................ 3 Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 4 Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................................... 8 Table of Figures .......................................................................................................................................... 11 Table of Tables ........................................................................................................................................... 11 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 12 2. Background ............................................................................................................................................ 14 2.1 History of the Church ........................................................................................................................ 14 2.2 Solar Technology ............................................................................................................................... 15 2.2.1 The History of Solar Power ........................................................................................................ 15 2.2.2 How Solar Power Works ............................................................................................................ 16 2.2.3 Different Types of Photovoltaic Panels ...................................................................................... 20 2.3 Regulations and Installation .............................................................................................................. 25 2.3.1 How Solar Panels are Installed ................................................................................................... 25 2.3.2 Regulations on a Solar Power System ........................................................................................ 26 2.4 Economics ........................................................................................................................................ 27 2.4.1 Incentives Available to System Buyers ...................................................................................... 27 2.4.2 Factors in Determining Economic Feasibility ............................................................................. 31 2.5 Similar Case Studies .......................................................................................................................... 33 2.5.1 Holy Name Wind Power Feasibility Study .................................................................................. 33 2.5.2 Solar Feasibility Study of a Learning Center at WPI ................................................................... 34 2.5.3 Janssen Ortho LLC Solar Power Feasibility Study ....................................................................... 35 3. Methodology .......................................................................................................................................... 37 3.1 Site Analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 37 3.1.1 Meteorological Analysis ............................................................................................................. 38 3.1.2 Layout of Roof Space ................................................................................................................. 39 3.1.3 Energy Usage ............................................................................................................................. 40 3.1.4 The Installation Process ............................................................................................................. 40 3.2 Analysis of Solar Panels and Systems ................................................................................................ 40 3.3 Solar Panel Placement ...................................................................................................................... 43 3.4 Economic Feasibility of the Systems ................................................................................................. 46 3.5 Social Implications ............................................................................................................................. 49 4. Site Analysis ........................................................................................................................................... 52 4.1 Location of the Church ...................................................................................................................... 52 4.2 Meteorological Analysis .................................................................................................................... 52 4.3 Layout of Roof Space ........................................................................................................................ 56 4.4 Energy Usage .................................................................................................................................... 58 4.5 The Installation Process .................................................................................................................... 60 5. Possible Solar Panels and Inverters ........................................................................................................ 63 5.1 Solar panels ...................................................................................................................................... 63 5.2 Inverter Choice ................................................................................................................................. 65 6. Economic Context .................................................................................................................................. 67 7. Scenarios ................................................................................................................................................ 75 7.1 Assumptions and Selection of Solar Panels ...................................................................................... 75 7.2 Scenario 1: Small System Size: .......................................................................................................... 76 Characteristics: .................................................................................................................................. 77 Impact: ............................................................................................................................................... 77 7. 3 Scenario 2: Moderate System Size: .................................................................................................. 78 Characteristics: .................................................................................................................................. 78 Impact: ............................................................................................................................................... 79 7.4 Scenario 3: Maximum System Size: .................................................................................................. 80 Characteristics: .................................................................................................................................. 80 Impact: ............................................................................................................................................... 81 7.5 Scenario 4: Maximum System Size with Volunteer installation: ...................................................... 82 Characteristics: .................................................................................................................................. 82 Impact: ............................................................................................................................................... 83 7.6 Assessment: ..................................................................................................................................... 84 7.7 Sensitivity Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 85 8. Social and Environmental Impact ........................................................................................................... 88 8.1 Effects on Carbon Footprint .............................................................................................................. 88 8.2 Environmental Stewardship .............................................................................................................. 89 8.3 Informational Brochure ..................................................................................................................... 90 8.4 Survey ............................................................................................................................................... 90 9. Conclusions and Recommendations ....................................................................................................... 93 Appendix A: Solar Panel Tilt Analysis ...................................................................................................... 95 Appendix B: Recommended Bidding Process ......................................................................................... 98 Appendix C: Site Dimensions ................................................................................................................ 100 Appendix D: Morning Shade ................................................................................................................. 101 Appendix E: Afternoon Shade ............................................................................................................... 102 Appendix F: Shading with Raised Panels ............................................................................................... 103 Appendix G: Meetings and Correspondences ...................................................................................... 104 Meeting with Tom Sikina on December 5, 2008: ............................................................................. 104 Meeting with York-Ogunquit United Methodist Church .................................................................. 106 Correspondences with the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative: ............................................ 107 Correspondences with solar panel installers: ................................................................................... 107 Appendix H: Solar panel installers ........................................................................................................ 109 Appendix I: Future Solar Panel Costs .................................................................................................... 110 Appendix J: Scale Model ....................................................................................................................... 112 Appendix K: Site Pictures ...................................................................................................................... 115 Appendix L: Simplified Economic Spreadsheet ..................................................................................... 118 Appendix M: Informational Brochure ................................................................................................... 120 Appendix N: Survey ............................................................................................................................... 123 Works Cited .............................................................................................................................................. 124
Table of Figures
Figure 1: P-N Junction ................................................................................................................................ 18 Figure 2: Solar Panel Construction and Implementation ............................................................................ 19 Figure 3: Solar Cell Composition ................................................................................................................. 20 Figure 4: Mono-Crystalline Solar Cells ........................................................................................................ 21 Figure 5: Poly-Crystalline Solar Cells ........................................................................................................... 21 Figure 6: String Ribbon Manufacturing Process.......................................................................................... 23 Figure 7: Thin-film Composition.................................................................................................................. 24 Figure 8: Depiction of the Sun Rays vs the Tilt of the Solar Panels............................................................. 44 Figure 9: Mean Daily Irradiation for Worcester .......................................................................................... 55 Figure 10: Weasly United Methodist Church’s Electricity Consumption .................................................... 59 Figure 11: Power Consumption vs Energy Production of a 20 kW System ................................................. 60 Figure 12: A screenshot of the economics spreadsheet. ............................................................................ 68 Figure 13: Solar panel efficiency over time................................................................................................. 70 Figure 14: Historical prices of the national average cost per kWh. ............................................................ 71 Figure 15: The year to year percent change in the Consumer Price Index. ................................................ 73 Figure 16: The amount of money required to have the same value as $10 in 1914. ................................. 74 Figure 17: 10kW System Energy Production ............................................................................................... 77 Figure 18: 10kW System Cash Flow ............................................................................................................ 78 Figure 19: 15kW System Energy Production ............................................................................................... 79 Figure 20: 15kW System Cash Flow ............................................................................................................ 80 Figure 21: 25kW System Energy Production ............................................................................................... 81 Figure 22: 25kW System Cash Flow ............................................................................................................ 82 Figure 23: 25kW System Energy Production ............................................................................................... 83 Figure 24: 25kW System Cash Flow with Volunteer Installation ................................................................ 84 Figure 25: Futuristic 25kW System Cash Flow ............................................................................................ 86 Figure 26: The Effect of Waiting 5 Years ..................................................................................................... 87 Figure 27: Graph showing the falling cost of PV intallations in Japan. ..................................................... 111 Table of Tables
Table 1: MTC Rebates ................................................................................................................................ 28 Table 2: Solar Panel Criteria ........................................................................................................................ 42 Table 3: Potential Solar Panels .................................................................................................................... 64 Table 4: Potential Inverters ......................................................................................................................... 66