The cost of electricity and the shortage in BCS creates lots of challenges for people living on the grid. Currently, research shows that there is approximately 30 percent more demand that available supply in BCS. Club Campestre is facing some of the problem as they must build a sub-station for support of the new construction in Campestre to meet the distribution area. As a consequence, very few new meters are being issued by CFE, and many homes and condos are on contractor power, which is the most expensive rate. The combination of higher temperatures in the summer and the demand for air conditioning as everyone returns home from work has frequently resulted in short blackouts throughout the Los Cabos area. Air conditioners also draw a high amount of electricity, quickly moving homeowners into the high price ranges of CFE.

One home owner in Cabo Real found that his monthly CFE bill was regularly exceeding $18,000 mx during the summer. This led to a meeting with the technical team from Innovacion Solar, who explained that this bill could be dramatically reduced through the additional of solar, without batteries (the highest cost component of solar systems). By leaving the air conditioning on low during the day, operated by solar energy, the house is cooler requiring this lower at night after the sun goes down.

Consequently, Innovacion Solar mounted 26 405 W panels on the homeowner’s roof and a Fronius Primo 10 kW Inverter to convert the solar energy directly to electricity to meet all power needs during the day, and reduce the need for high levels of air conditioning at night to cool the house. The Inverter is also hooked to the grid and the application has been made to CFE to sell back excess power, but has not yet been approved. The panels, with full sunlight could produce 10,530 W of electricity per hour.

This is a small example of what solar can accomplish in a grid-tied system. Innovacion a few years ago mounted panels on the roof of The Shoppes at Palmilla for the same reason – to reduce the cost of electricity during the daylight hours. Commercial rates are the highest of all CFE rates.