My 44kW vertical and bifacial set in Finland plus now 15kW roof mounted too.
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shadowmaker
Solar Wizard
We aren't called a land of thousand lakes for nothing. There are water everywhere. I have two natural ponds on my yard, a river on my one border and a big ditch that runs down my other border like white water all year around.
One of the reasons Finland is great; never an issue finding water. Dig a hole, and it'll fill up with water. My well is 40m deep and it's overkill.
You can also find a nice beach at a lake or the sea without any other people around.
Plus Finland has some of the best ice fishing.
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It does, for sure! Nothing beats some smoked Burbot in the middle of winter. Perch is wonderful too.
shadowmaker
Solar Wizard
1,8MWh February. It has been exceptionally warm all winter here. I hate it. I'd take -25C anytime over current +3C. Everything is muddy and it doesn't even try dry up. +3C is fine for late March as then sun will dry everything fast.
Yep, it's like freaking early Spring arrived at least a month early, if not more. I have green grass in my backyard...
We're hurtling toward mud season here in Maine, US. -22C here last night and we have a good 30-40 cm of compacted snow on the ground. I have a few 2 meter piles beside the driveway. But look at the forecast for midweek. It's going to be a soggy mess that'll melt a bunch of this. The road will have ruts galore, and then it'll freeze that way when it gets cold again. I love every season here except mud season. Apologies for the imperial in the pic.
shadowmaker
Solar Wizard
It has been exactly two years today since I got my system running. Everything is still working just fine and to my surprise my homemade vertical array with windshield glue holding those huge 700W panels is still in one piece. I'm certainly no engineer so I just tried to foresee any pitfall I could imagine. Every 3 panel set is 2,8m x 4m (9ft x 13ft) in size so there's 21 big sails on my field and they have survived about dozen 30m/s (67MPH) storms/blizzards so far. I don't expect them to survive 35m/s (78MPH) winds but those are rare here. So far I'm happy with my build, but two years is just a start.
I think I was right when I decided to get batteries and hybrid inverters as at first I was aiming for grid tied only. Current large scale wind and solar production here makes energy selling prices all over the place so storage enables me to decide what to do with extra production. It is also nice to have emergency storage although blackouts are really rare here and usually lasting under ten seconds.
As my verticals are 135 azimuth they suffered late afternoon as then sun is inline with my array. Installing another ~15kWp perpendicular to it made a huge difference as now batts are full when night comes and I can be self sufficient about 8-9 months every year. Unfortunately latest array is roof mounted and while it excels in summer it's totally useless in winter. Summer production with 19 hour daylight isn't problem here so only verticals for me from this on.
Happy two years for anybody fool enough to read my nonsense here!
I think I was right when I decided to get batteries and hybrid inverters as at first I was aiming for grid tied only. Current large scale wind and solar production here makes energy selling prices all over the place so storage enables me to decide what to do with extra production. It is also nice to have emergency storage although blackouts are really rare here and usually lasting under ten seconds.
As my verticals are 135 azimuth they suffered late afternoon as then sun is inline with my array. Installing another ~15kWp perpendicular to it made a huge difference as now batts are full when night comes and I can be self sufficient about 8-9 months every year. Unfortunately latest array is roof mounted and while it excels in summer it's totally useless in winter. Summer production with 19 hour daylight isn't problem here so only verticals for me from this on.
Happy two years for anybody fool enough to read my nonsense here!
Still one of my favorite threads on the forum, so thank you! Your vertical panels inspired me to design a vertical string along our south wall into the house we built last year, and it has been a very positive game changer for us.
shadowmaker
Solar Wizard
Come on Antlerhead. Don't you ever mention me in any of your projects if you want to keep any credibility whatsoever. You are supposed to moderate us sheeps with your high authority so don't let it crumble down this easy. I had high hopes for you...Same here. I'll build one with the high voltage MPPT I got for USD130 or something
shadowmaker
Solar Wizard
Daylight is over 12 hours already and even less than perfect day I got 350kWh. Sadly spot prices were down, so had to be creative to use as much power I could so ended exporting just over 100kWh...
shadowmaker
Solar Wizard
Last three days got me 1,11MWh production.
Yesterday's graph.
Blue verticals, red barn roof. No snow on the field and day temps close to 10C so verticals don't clip their MPPT (12kW). Still 382kWh that day.
Daylight is 12,5 hours already and getting longer fast.
Yesterday's graph.
Blue verticals, red barn roof. No snow on the field and day temps close to 10C so verticals don't clip their MPPT (12kW). Still 382kWh that day.
Daylight is 12,5 hours already and getting longer fast.
Shadowmaker I have been looking at the vertical array you built on and off since joining the site.
Something clicked yesterday after ordering some more panels and that is possibly using an existing fence somewhat like your design to support a vertical array. I have a wood post straight line horse fence that IIRC we spaced the posts at 10' on center years back.
I am now wondering if I could do a low buck but similar set up using the existing north / South fence by running unistrut or similar in 2 rows along the fence posts and then doing a 3 portrait panel group set of panels between each set of posts.
Anyway that is a great vertical setup in landscape you built and it sure seems to work great for your Northern latitude.
Your Innovative work is Inspiring me to possibly try a vertical fence array.
shadowmaker
Solar Wizard
Why not? How much ground clearance due to snow? How tall is your posts and panels? Is this aimed only for winter production where vertical (90degree) is fine or do you want some summer production too? Do you think your posts are strong enough for local winds/storms?
Nothing wrong saving money by using existing structures. Now that panels are cheap you have to hate mounting costs which haven't got any cheaper.
I know I'm "little different" but I would use unistruts under and above those panels and just glue everything together to make it strong and to avoid backside shadows. Although I'm pretty sure benefits are peanuts on south facing array where there's no direct sunlight to backside ever.
Lets see, the posts are maybe 5? feet tall -so pretty short, I can run the tractor with snowblower along the fence line in winter, so that will be just like I did/do for the tilt array.
I have quite a bit of used 14' 2 x 6 I could rip to 2 or 3 pieces each and then run a cable over to my combiner box under the main array for a "test"
Or if it looks like I need to elevate the panels higher I can make up some bolt through steel caps for the posts andweld up make some sort of vertical riser supports maybe.
This fence definitely gets the first sun of the day summer or winter at least a couple hours before the south facing array does.
Afternoon this fence / panel wall would be really poor because the west side is all trees. But in winter with lots of snow cover maybe decent overall. Thinking this may be a way of spreading out the solar power delivery over the day a bit.
I really wasn't planning on more panels till next year, but this site hooked me again with Beene Bro's having those 390 watt bifacials for $66 each under 20 cents a watt for delivered pallet.
shadowmaker
Solar Wizard
I have tractor and snowblower too, but I really don't want to clear snow under my array. I already have one hectare yard with twelve doors to clear so I think that's more than plenty for me already. I do love snow and cold, but clearing my yard makes me think moving to more warmer climate...
Spreading out my solar delivery was an eye opener. You have to remember I'm dumb as left foot rubber shoe so thinking isn't really my game. I'm just stingy and didn't want to buy more inverting power as I had unused MPPTs on my current inverters. I still have 2x 20A (1100V) MPPTs if I ever decide to expand my solar.
I first understood your array is South/North facing (silly me), but it was your fence line which means your panels are East/West with blocked west side sun. Also your South facing array produces already enough so this new one is for morning production only?
I would extend those poles to avoid snow clearing if possible (wind/storm) and use 80-85 degree tilt instead of vertical and install panels in front of your fence post. My panels are between my posts (not in front of them) as I wanted late afternoon/evening production too. But putting panels in front of poles can extend their production maybe 0,5-1 hour midday.
shadowmaker
Solar Wizard
March was good solar wise. Last late July installed 15kWp roof panels contributed maybe half month to total while being under snow/ice the other half. Still 6,0MWh
shadowmaker
Solar Wizard
I ordered 2x10kWh LFPs and three cheap bitcoin miners as I need more "regulating power". Here in Finland there's so much wind energy production already and they are still building more at fast rate so every time there's even little wind available spot prices plummet. That means I can even make negative revenue with my exported solar. Not much but still. And I do make 250+kWh surplus on a good day so my friend told me to get ~10kW worth of miners to use that surplus and get some small profit out of it. Of course everything needs to be automated through HA so I'm way over my head here...
This has been on my todo list for a while now, but never had time. Now that I'm at 120kWh storage and with the planned solar array expansion, this is coming back on my radar. Which ones did you go for?
shadowmaker
Solar Wizard
My friend have been using Antminer S19 as hobby for half a year already with excess solar and could buy some more from same dealer. They are used and old technology with ~3,5kW usage each, so perfect for my purpose and entry level mining. Not going to get rich with these, but can use these for heating in cold weather and maybe even get some benefit out of otherwise wasted solar production.
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I have a business partner whose husband is into bitcoin mining. He made a decent profit from it in the past but now it seems he barely covers their cost of electricity. They had a boiler problem during the worst part of winter and she said the mining equipment in the basement actually helped to heat the house while they waited for a part over several weeks (very old boiler). Good luck with your setup.
shadowmaker
Solar Wizard
It was really windy for almost a week...
Closer look revealed that everything is still in one piece although 150kg of glass had fallen on top of yard stones keeping white plastic on the ground (one stone is touching glass in this picture) . Not even single PV wire was broken so everything was still working.
One "arm" was still in its stainless steel bracket. Aluminum arm had only scars on it but the SS bracket was all twisted. Didn't expect that.
Here's reason for the whole event. CCA treated post was split in two... Never ever expected that to happen.
The 150kg set stayed lying on the ground for four days until it was calm enough to try to fix it today.
It took some thinking, some luck and one and a half hour to lift it back in position with excavator. Only some dirt on it which came off washing.
Lastly I tightened SS band around that split post (no picture) and decided to make one for every post and also add alu/SS caps on top of them too. I think the whole problem is probably water getting inside post and freezing because I didn't use end caps like they do with telephone/electric posts here. Stupid me.
I am amazed how strong these homemade sets with windscreen glue are. I mean it had to be a violent event when this happened. But then I have always said the more pathetic the man, the better the luck.
The first four sets (this is third ever made) are somewhat different than the rest as I saw some improvements needed to be made as I went on fabricating these. I still think it didn't play any role here as fault was the post not panel set.
Did I learn anything from this? No, probably not...
Closer look revealed that everything is still in one piece although 150kg of glass had fallen on top of yard stones keeping white plastic on the ground (one stone is touching glass in this picture) . Not even single PV wire was broken so everything was still working.
One "arm" was still in its stainless steel bracket. Aluminum arm had only scars on it but the SS bracket was all twisted. Didn't expect that.
Here's reason for the whole event. CCA treated post was split in two... Never ever expected that to happen.
The 150kg set stayed lying on the ground for four days until it was calm enough to try to fix it today.
It took some thinking, some luck and one and a half hour to lift it back in position with excavator. Only some dirt on it which came off washing.
Lastly I tightened SS band around that split post (no picture) and decided to make one for every post and also add alu/SS caps on top of them too. I think the whole problem is probably water getting inside post and freezing because I didn't use end caps like they do with telephone/electric posts here. Stupid me.
I am amazed how strong these homemade sets with windscreen glue are. I mean it had to be a violent event when this happened. But then I have always said the more pathetic the man, the better the luck.
The first four sets (this is third ever made) are somewhat different than the rest as I saw some improvements needed to be made as I went on fabricating these. I still think it didn't play any role here as fault was the post not panel set.
Did I learn anything from this? No, probably not...
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