PHOTOVOLTAIC PANELS IN MENORCA

Case Study from Binissafúller

After the extreme heat and high electricity costs of last summer, many people are now installing photovoltaic (PV) panels in their villas in Menorca. We visited David and Penny Rendall who installed the panels at their house in 2021. Pleased with the results, in October 2022 they added a second installation to a villa that they rent out in summer. They had installed solar panels for hot water at both houses several years ago and were keen to see how much the PV panels would help to reduce their electric bills.

The initial installation of 15 PV panels (6,75 kWp) was set up on a plot of land adjacent to their villa in Binissafúller in November 2021. The cost of the installation, including the clearing and preparation of the land, the solar panels and the Huawei inverter, came to 10.600€+IVA. The work was carried out by Azimut 360 based in Alaior.

Although there were grants available, they didn’t apply as the funds were running out at the time and there was uncertainty as to whether an application would be successful. Nevertheless, they qualify for a refund against their annual IBI (council) taxes, although this is limited to 300€ a year (every municipality in Menorca has a different deal on the IBI refund).

Azimut 360 were recommended to them by Som Energia, a cooperative in Barcelona. A360 helped with all the paperwork and set up the installation so that they receive credit back from the grid through their supplier, Fenie Energia. The excess energy produced but not used is put into a piggy bank at the end of each month, known as a ‘Monedero solar” or “Batería Virtual”. The excess is fed back into the grid and between 15 and 20c per KWh is credited to their account, depending on the electricity supplier. Currently, it does not make economic sense for them to install batteries to store the excess.

In October 2022 David and Penny invested in a second installation of 9 slightly larger panels (total 4,95 kWp) on the roof of their rental villa. The cost of this installation, including the inverter, was 7200€ + IVA. They expect this to pay for itself in 5-6 years. “Last summer the electricity bills in the rental villa were 380€ in July and 450€ in August. This compared to 28 € in July and 29€ in August in our own house using our photovoltaic energy”

David and Penny have been learning the tricks of living with PV panels, running their appliances during the day when there is peak generation. David also has an electric car which he charges at home. When we visited, on a cloudy day, the rental villa’s panels were producing 3.84 kW of power, with 2.255 kW being used in the house with the remainder fed to the grid. At David and Penny’s own house the 15 solar panels were producing 5.9 kW and they were consuming 4.6 kW as the car was also on charge. All this information is accessible in real time using the Huawei App on a mobile phone.

Wat Air – Producing drinking water from thin air!

We were very interested to see that the couple have also installed an Atmospheric Water Generating machine in their house. This extracts ‘water from air’ and converts it to pure and fresh drinking water. The technology produces high-quality drinking water and of course there is no need to buy and transport expensive bottled water. This eliminates plastic water bottle waste and the need for delivery of water bottles/containers, thus reducing the carbon footprint. The technology requires relatively high humidity and high temperatures to operate to maximum effect although the main requirement is humidity which, as we all know, is in abundance in Menorca! The AWG simply plugs into a standard electrical socket.

They sourced their AWG from the UK for £1400 and, although they had to pay Import Duty of 475€ to bring it into Spain, it was still less than half the cost of buying a similar model in Spain. It costs them nothing to run the machine during the day because of their photovoltaic panels. The filters need to be changed once a year at a cost of €180. We enjoyed a glass of water chilled straight from the machine, but it can also produce hot water. This AWG stores 12.5 litres of water and can produce up to 30 litres per day at 30 deg C and 80% humidity.

There are 15L, 30L and 60L capacity machines for domestic use as well as much larger commercial models. If there is no mains electricity available all units can be powered by an electrical generator or pv power. In emergency situations in developing countries, NGOs quite often use industrial scale AWGs where no mains water or wells are avalaible.

Contact for photovoltaic panel installation: Azimut 360 SCCL (www.azimut360.coop), Centre Bit Menorca, Av. des Camp Verd, 4. 07730

+34 656 981 608 balears@azimut360.coop

Contact for AWG machines: Ian Ivory, Wat Air UK ian@watairuk.co.uk Tel : +44 7951471144