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Profitability and How to Maximize it

Aside from the virtue of protecting the environment of the planet, and the value of Corporate Responsibility, the primary reason for building a Energy Park© or Mini Energy Park© is an honest profit motive.  The owner of the facility must raise the money to construct it, and expects a reasonable return on that investment.
There are two ways to maximize profit on a facility :

1 - build it cheap and reduce the initial CapEx

2 - build it to maximize the revenue

At Hybridyne, we don't subscribe to the first mindset, especially for Grid-Supply projects with a FeedIn Tariff like Ontario's.  When you are being paid by the KiloWattHour delivered, it doesn't make financial sense to save a few bucks up front and deliver much less 'product' for the next 40 years. Do the math - does it make sense to save, say, 30% of the Capex ( one time ), and earn ,say, 30% less EVERY YEAR for the life of the facility ( and a properly build Solar Array, for example, will easily last 40 years) ?
We find it to be much more profitable to the investors to build a Renewable Energy facility so that it generates as much electricity as possible
But how is that done ?  What makes a "better" facility.  To answer that, let's look at what will be the most common type of RE facility built under Ontario's FIT program , an industrial scale rooftop solar array like many under construction right now .  Please review the White Paper we have written to explain all of this more completely.
This typical array consists of several components :

1 - PhotoVoltaic ( PV ) solar panels

2 - some sort of support structure to hold the panels

3 - the electronics ( typically called the 'inverter' ) to convert the raw DC energy from the panels into AC energy acceptable to the Grid

 

 

The typical 'cheaper is better' array will look something like this -

 

 

Let's call this the "baseline" facility and set about improving it.

The 'raw' input energy to the solar array is sunlight .  The variation in intensity ( called Insolatrion ) over a typical day looks like this - it starts out low in the morning, and gets brigher until noon, then tapers off toward dusk.

The Yield of our typical 'baseline' array is shown to the right.  Because no array is 100% efficient or efficacious, the yield is some percentage of the total energy available.  Notice that the array delivers more energy as the sunlight gets brighter (as we would have expected) but unexpectedly, it doesn't produce any energy before it receives some particular amount of light ( we'll explain that later ).
The first Improvement is to mount the PV panels at the correct angle for the latitude at which the facility is built.  We have shown ( by the results from arrays we have been installing here for the last 6 years ) that the correct angle for the latitude of Toronto is about 43 degrees, and that correct 'tilt' can give up to a 20 % improvement in yield.

A nice side benefit of properly mounted PV panels is that they keep themselves cleaner - rain can wash dirt off, and snow can slide off.  By mounting the panels on racking ( instead of the boxes shown above ), they can run cooler, which also means they can generate more electricity.

The new curve represents the improved output for a properly aligned array.

We have also found ( by testing many different solar panels ) that better panels generate more electricity - sometimes MUCH more electricity than cheap panels.

We have also found that some good panels even generate more electricity at lower levels of illumination.  That is, with better panels, you can get more electricity earlier in the day, or on dull days ( of which we have many in Ontario ), or on days when clouds are passing and obscure the array from time to time.

The newest curve shows the improved yield generated by spending a little more money on better panels.

Probably the biggest single improvement we can make to our 'baseline' array is replace the 'inverter' with an " enhanced inverter ", one that can 'turn on' under lower light conditions.  As it happens, we have many more hours of lower light levels ( over a day and over a year ) than we have of perfect maximum intensity .  An " enhanced inverter " like all CIT's ( Conversion-Inversion Technology ) from Hybridyne Power Electronics can generate up to 30% additional yield per year because it is more efficacious - that is, it is more effective.  The " enhanced inverter " will also be more efficient ( efficiency being a measurement of how little energy it loses to heat ).

Notice that the new blue curve is higher and wider, illustrating that it 'turns on' sooner and keeps working later. The increased area under the curve represents increased yield from the array, and increased profitibility for the owner.

As we can see, each improvement adds something to the annual yield, and it bears repeating that the improvements mean more profit for EVERY YEAR of the life of the array ( which, if properly built ) will still be making money long after the first 20 years of the FIT program. 
Please review the White Paper we have written which goes into sufficient detail to  explain all of this more comprehensively.