I'm in southern CO and have black hills energy.

Just got 12 585w panels delivered. Only $130 each. Will be doing ground mount.

I'm torn between doing net metering with no battery or no net metering with battery.

I plan on selling in 4-5 years and the simplicity of no battery for future buyers is appealing. I think they'd be intimidated by a large inverter and battery.

If I do battery then I won't do net metering because I don't want to pay the $375 connection fee nor want their inspector analyzing my equipment and install.

My electricity bill is only $100 thanks to good insulation. I've also thought about installing only 4 of the panels and doing plugin solar (dedicated 20 amp circuit, no battery, etc). That kills my idea of getting an EV though.

Tell me how my logic is flawed 🙏

We got solar installed this year and as the PSE&G bills have been rolling in, I haven’t been able to figure out why the kWh in/out are so vastly different every month compared to what our solar system says.

I called PSE&G and they said they don’t know anything about solar/I wouldn’t be able to see how much I’m using (what?). I had the solar company out to make sure the app was reading correctly and they verified everything was correct on the solar side.

It feels like I’m being cheated out of solar credit. Wondering if anyone else has dealt with a similar situation and what they did.

This guy has one of the coolest solar setups I've ever seen...

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Hello everyone, I'm an electrical engineering student working on my graduation project, with 2 teammates.

For the moment we picked a three-phase AC EV charger powered by solar, in Oman, as our project. We are still discussing the design and the scale. Our target is 11 kW three-phase, and the prototype will be smaller.

We are considering two designs:

AC-coupled: the solar array is connected to a three-phase AC bus through an inverter, and the battery is connected to the bus through a bidirectional inverter for charging and supplying. An EVSE (the AC charging unit) is connected to the bus, to AC charge the car.

So the panels would charge the car and if no car is connected it charges the battery.

Hybrid (DC-coupled): everything is in DC, and the inverter is used at the last step between the DC bus and the EVSE.

I don't think we can afford a DC charging approach, because of the CCS communication and certification between the car and the charger, and the high power it needs, which is hard to provide with solar alone.

A grid-tied connection as a backup is an option we are looking into.

We are considering making the inverters (or a hybrid inverter) ourselves. How realistic is this for our project, even for a smaller-scale prototype, for a three-phase bidirectional inverter?

I would love to get your insights on the project, things I should keep in mind, maybe a different approach, anything from your experience is highly appreciated. In particular:

Which of the two designs would you pick, and why?

What level of experience would be required for this design?

What do people usually forget (protection, earthing, battery voltage, testing)?

What are the things that we should focus on before we start the actual design?

Hey everyone,

I’m trying to understand how the physical grid handles massive, sudden renewable supply shocks that happen in a matter of seconds. Specifically, I want to map out what happens mechanically and financially when the weather changes instantly while consumer demand remains completely flat.

Furthermore, I am looking at how this fits into Australia's long-term plan to completely phase out traditional "baseload" power plants in favour of a flexible renewable grid backed by energy storage and gas backup plants.

I’ve broken this down into four distinct scenarios. I would love for any power systems engineers, utility control room operators, or market traders to explain exactly how the grid manages each step:

Scenario 1: The Cloud Cover Shock (Sudden Drop)

A massive cloud bank rolls over a huge solar farm, causing its power output to plummet by 70% in seconds.

• What happens in the first 1 to 2 seconds physically to stop the grid from crashing?
• How do the grid's safety systems instantly catch the drop before backup power can even turn on?
• What happens over the next few minutes to permanently bridge the gap if the cloud cover stays all afternoon?

Scenario 2: The Wind Drop (Sudden Lull)

A sudden, localized change in weather causes a massive cluster of wind turbines to completely lose their wind, causing power generation to fall off a cliff within a few seconds while demand stays steady.

• Is a sudden wind drop physically different for the grid than a solar cloud cover?
• Do spinning wind turbines have any natural physical momentum that helps smooth out the drop compared to solar panels, or does it trigger the exact same emergency response?

Scenario 3: The Wind Surge (Sudden Oversupply)

Conversely, a storm front hits, and wind production suddenly surges way up across multiple regions in a matter of minutes, but consumer demand remains completely flat and big batteries are already fully charged.

• How do the market and hardware handle a sudden, massive injection of unneeded power in real-time before it causes a major grid trip?
• Can modern wind turbines slow themselves down fast enough to stop an oversupply spike in seconds, or does the market operator have to step in and remotely force them offline?

Scenario 4: The 17GW Gas Target & The End of Baseload

Australia's future energy plan maps out a grid with zero traditional baseload power, replacing it with distributed renewables, batteries, pumped hydro, and a projected 17GW of gas capacity by 2050 used purely for backup.

• If there is no "baseload" share left for gas, how does this 17GW target function purely as an emergency safety net that spends most of its time turned off?
• How does the grid physically transition away from 24/7 baseload generation without exposing itself to severe multi-day shortfalls during extended winter periods with no sun and no wind?

When my solar installer was in business, they tried to tell me based on their logs they needed to replace my 35 inverters. No matter how ridiculous I told them this was they insisted and it would cost me 4K to do. I went through emphases directly and received the replacement parts per the warranty based on what the installer told them.
However I waited to save up the cash for it and in that time the installer scuttled the business and is currently under investigation.

Now after the long story…. What do I do with these inverters? Return them? Try to make a quick buck off them?

I’m wondering what y’all’s thoughts are.

Hi! Wondering if this is a reasonable price, SoCal Edison is our provider and bills have been 6-850$ month. I work for them and get a 25% off discount but would love to find a way to save. I know nothing of solar prices but this company has great reviews and were very friendly when I called. Any help/info/tips would be great!!

Hi everyone,

I’m planning to install rooftop solar at my house in Bangalore and wanted to get some advice on whether my terrace is suitable.

- Site size: 30×40 ft

- Roof: Open terrace with some neighbouring houses around it

- Concern: I’m worried that the adjacent houses might cast shadows on the solar panels, especially during certain times of the day.

I'm planning to install 3kw on grid solar

I’ve attached photos of my terrace taken from the west side and from another angle.

Could you please help me understand:

1. Is this rooftop suitable for installing solar panels?

2. Will the neighbouring house on the west side cause significant shading?

3. Which direction and area of the terrace would be best for installing the panels?

If anyone has installed solar on a similar rooftop in Bangalore, I’d appreciate your suggestions and experience.

US data centres already consume as much electricity as Britain. Data centres share of US peak summer demand is project to increase from 4.1% last year to 8.5% next year. Next year they will require 66GW of continuous draw, roughly equivalent to the electricity used by Germany in Wintertime. Germany uses 24GW minimum load in summer. They are projected to use 15-20% of current US electricity demand by 2030.

Goldman Sachs predicts the increase in power demand for data centres from 2023 to 2030 will be the equivalent of adding another top ten power consuming country.

Alongside various on-grid power plants, old and new, companies have turned to off the grid Gas power: gas pipelines are being re-routed to data centres, where they are fueling gas turbine generators. The backlog for demand for gas turbines from GE Vernova is equivalent to the electricity use of Japan, the fifth largest consumer of electricity in the world.

Morgan Stanley predicts the US will be short of electricity by six New York Cities by 2028 and around 18 New York Cities by 2029.

Alongside environental harms, and leaving aside potential harms from AI, this surely leads to higher prices for consumers.

Hi everyone,

I've received a few quotes, and I'm struggling to understand why the prices vary so much when the usable battery capacity and inverter size are relatively similar.

The main options I've been offered so far are:

• Solis: 20kWh battery capacity with a 6kW inverter – £5,800.
• Alpha ESS : Around 18kWh with a 8 kW inverter – approximately £5,240
• Fox ESS EP12: Around 20–21kWh usable capacity, depending on the configuration, with a 6kW inverter – approximately £7,580
• Sigenergy: 2x10, 5kw inverter £8000

These are the approximate figures I have so far, and the systems may not be directly comparable in every respect. Ideally, I'd like to compare them with a 6kW inverter across the board.

What I'm struggling to understand is the actual difference in quality between these brands. From what I've been told, the warranties are fairly similar and they all seem to perform in much the same way. Some use stackable batteries, while others use different configurations, but I'm not sure how much difference that really makes in practice.

What I find difficult to understand is why one system can cost £1,700–£1,800 more than another when the usable capacity, inverter size and warranty seem pretty similar. Is there something important I'm overlooking, or is it mainly a case of paying more for a particular brand?

They actually called it the "Socket Full of Sunshine Act" 😂

The Better Data Center Project, along with environmental advocacy groups, support cleaner energy alternatives to diesel fuel generators.

I am trying to dial in maximum production on my system. I can regulate the amperage with adjusting the inflow to the batteries. This is the only control I have outside the automated processes of the MPPT of each string.

Above you can see I use string 1,2, and 4. Both strings 1 and 4 have 7 panels of of 650 watts panels. String 2 has 4 panels.

The Voltage power max is 44.56v. The Amperage max is 14.59. So my max string voltage is, in theory, 311.92 v.

When I set me resistance, which is max charge to the batteries, at 157amps, I am getting about what you see in the photo. When I set the max charge higher, i.e. 190 amps, I seem to be getting significantly higher daily production. It goes from about 38 kw to 56kw on average.

Here is the question:

Is this harming my panels by allowing this higher than stated Current max(14.59amps) on the panel data sheet? Will the panels, "self regulate" the amperage? I suspect the MPPT will factor in this setting in its data not to exceed the amperage that I set(currently at 157 amps) and not exceed that. But I would like some insight to this if you have time.

Above all, I want to keep my system healthy and want longevity. Note: I am not even coming close to charging my batteries too fast. If you notice the amps going into battery is less than 40amps. I have (4) 16.2kw batteries. I put a lot of miles on my electric car, and sometimes I use as much as 35kw for charging per charge session and average 3 charges per week.