Hi from Iowa

Hello, all! For quite a while now I have wanted to start bottling sunlight, finally I have the opportunity! I'm starting my solar journey in a suburb of our capitol city, nowhere near peace and quiet. I'm hittin' the easy button as a beginner, with an Ecoflow D2Max and a 1.6kW array, which I have not even installed yet. Our home faces an unobstructed south, with bountiful sunlight (sometimes) and nowhere near enough PV cells or battery to collect it.

I've spent the last 1/4 century fixing cars, so I'm no stranger to DC electrical!

Lookin' forward to learning and building more!

-Jeff

Welcome, glad to hear you have bountiful sunlight!

Hi Jeff, also from Iowa. Did you grid tie your PV system? Who is your power provider?

iowa_guy said:

Hi Jeff, also from Iowa. Did you grid tie your PV system? Who is your power provider?

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MidAmerican. Not grid tied. I am however beginning to wish I'd have installed a transfer switch to utilize excess solar! The temperature has been so mild my batteries are full with nothing to drain them!

I am considering a net metering agreement with Mid American. Any particular reason you went the battery route instead?

iowa_guy said:

I am considering a net metering agreement with Mid American. Any particular reason you went the battery route instead?

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I can tell you local coops have changed the net metering agreements after the ink dried. I know several farmers that had agreements amended after they had been in place for several years. The utility board allows it, it shouldn't however. Mid American obviously intends to power most of Iowa, my utility is buying from Mid American after Dairyland shut down coal plants and the rural coop is buying from Mid American too since Dairyland closed the coal plants. . Warren Buffet and a few others have lobbied for laws, rules and regs to benefit them since purchasing Mid American in 1999.

If you watch and look closely, Mid American owns a huge amount of wind and other power generation in the state and the shareholders (Berkshire) intend to make a profit and a nice revenue stream. 66 more wind towers went up last year here and Mid American bought the wind farm once construction began. Another 60 plus next year I think. And probably more as the federal government keeps handing them money for renewables that favor big renewables.

IA had a pretty good utility governing board for years but as the statehouse took the lobbying money, the laws were changed to favor the utilities.