Joseph Schirò, San Ġwann
Turn the car park into a solar grove
The Transport Minister has just announced the new payment structure for the Blata l-Bajda park-and-ride service.
He also said the government was losing €700,000 a year to run the system.
But the wasteland we have at Blata l-Bajda can easily be turned into a solar grove which should be generating enough electricity to give the government not only a handsome profit but will give the client using the car park shade for his car.
Since we have also been talking lately about the amount of rainwater which goes to waste, we can even store the water which falls on the roof of these solar panels. Future clients can also make use of the generated electricity to charge their electric cars.
So we have a win-win situation which can never go wrong. Above is a picture of a car park in California. How different does it look from our Blata l-Bajda car park?
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Joseph Schiro
Dec 2nd 2010, 21:51
Mr Vella Zarb in his comments asked whether Solar Groves are feasible. I have calculated how much the panels shown in the picture can be feasible by basing my costs on a domestic six-panel array, plus the amount of KW which the sellers of these PV panels claim. The panels in the picture should cost about 2,500,000 euro and generate about 433KW or 207,000 euro worth of electricity at Government’s prices. This means a return of 8.28% on your capital, which no Bank has ever or will ever give. Now with such big systems, prices are always negotiable and the setup in the picture should be even more efficient than the domestic EV panels.
Edward Mallia
Dec 2nd 2010, 17:55
@ Paul Mallia Without in any way suggesting that the situation is rosy or even very clear, it is surely not as totally confused and confusing as you assert. I bought an EV almost 8 years ago and am still driving it with the initial set of batteries. Alongside I have had several converted cars -- not everybody's kettle of fish I admit. There are other EVs similar to mine on the road.
Karl Axisa
Dec 2nd 2010, 16:30
Food for thought Dr.G
Joseph Calleja
Dec 2nd 2010, 15:16
What an excellent idea and an excellent demonstration of solar panels in action. Maybe we can send our experts to California and learn how these panels work. To have something like this in Malta is too good to be true. But you do have a good point Mr Schiro. I believe there is another such project in Nevada. Maybe our experts can also find out more about the Electric Generating Wind Turbines that are cropping up all over the United States. You can find thousands of these turbines cropping up within a short distance East of San Francisco.
Edward Mallia
Dec 2nd 2010, 14:07
As a matter of fact the original design of the Park & Ride -- which government threw into its wastepaperbasket-- in fact had a large (for the late 1990s) PV installation at the top level. At that time the idea was to provide some of the charge needed by the small electric buses which were going to take people into Valletta. The present P&R does not even have a single electronic notice board, much less an electric shuttle. So as far as ideas are concerned, we are not too far behind California; it is when it comes to doing that we get bogged down.
Paul Mallia
Dec 2nd 2010, 12:29
Call the minister and tell him all this. He will surely not imagine to do it. I have been trying to introduce this concept of EV's to Malta since a long while back, but never manage because the minister does not even have the courtesy to speak to me about it. I have links and contacts, but he never uses them. It is all up to him, but maybe he will try this idea since you showed him the picture. I just gave up and let the minister gubble it up (as usual) and then see later on! Try to go and purchase a car from local sources? Try to get one in yourself? Try to do something about it? You will lose heart! You simply do not even have (up to now) a formulated system upon which you can rely to TRY getting in one Electric Vehicle or buy one from the local markets. It is simply disastrous. I cannot see an end to this and I hope that some time or other it will change. We need EV's in Malta and it will work miracles. Mr. Minister please note!!!!
wally vella-zarb
Dec 2nd 2010, 11:05
It is certainly feasible. Whether or not it would be viable is another matter altogether, OTOH, a viability study of this proposal would be more cost effective than the study on the proposed wind farm on Sikka l-Bajda.