Sat 2 Jun 2012
As part of the Queen Elizabeth II’s 60 anniversary Jubilee, the Cayman Turtle farm came up with a lovely idea. They chose to release one of their eldest residents, who is dubbed “Sir Thomas Turtleton”. He is estimated to be approximately 60 years old and has been at the Turtle farm for 30 years.
Before the release, we had a short talk by the CEO of the Turtle farm, Tim Adam (very nice guy)
Mike Adam, the Cayman Islands Government, Minister of Community affairs was looking on!
Here the big fellow is being lowered down as he nears his return to the wild.
Massive turtle!!! Immediately after, a few guys turned him towards the water and he instinctively moved towards it with surprising ease and speed.
… and he is swimming away. Note the GPS tracking device on his back. The staff at the Turtle farm will be tracking him to see where he is going. Should be interesting to see if he sticks around or if he goes elsewhere in the Caribbean.
On my way back, I spotted this house next to the golf club. WOW. Talk about maximizing the solar potential of your roof. I count 60 panels. Assuming 200w each, that gives a whopping 12,000w of power at peak which would make a massive dent in Cayman utility bills. (or possibly 0 if they have batteries to stock the power)
Let’s do the maths.
12,000w = 12 kw. Assuming 5 hours per day (quite conservative), you get 60 kWh per day, 1800kWh per month.
At Quebec’s rate ($0.075 per kWh), you get 135$ per month. In Cayman it’s probably close to $0.25, so you would get 500$ per month. That is 6000$ per year.
Now, how much does it cost to get a 200 watts panel ? Assuming 250$ each (including installation), it’s 15,000$.
If my assumptions are on target, your panels are paid in 2.5 years, that is quite good.
You don’t really need a lot of batteries to stock the power, the Air Conditioning system will eat up 12,000 watts in real time…
In Quebec, the low price of electricity makes these things too expensive.
Yves