Sol-Ark Microinverters

[TacoMeat]

So finding out that our power company Xcel requires AC coupled solar through a PV meter if over 10kw. Any idea if Sol-Ark is ever going to realse their micro inverters?

The iq8s + combiner box is pretty expensive when looking at everything when you need 38 panels.

So looking at other options and it seems Sol-Ark have micro inverters coming which might be a cheaper. Otherwise the only other way I could do this is with a smaller inverter then send that into a 15k off the gen port.

If anyone else on Xcel has ideas that'd be great!

 

[zanydroid]

The basis for your question doesn't jive with my understanding of the technology / POCO policies.

Obviously I'm not in Xcel but this is my 2 cents.

Here with PG&E there are a lot of different limits for different system architectures. But AC coupling is the most restrictive. And having a export limit cap of 10kW-AC on the storage inverter (no limit on the grid tie inverters) simplifies things a lot, approval wise. For instance, skipping the production meter. Does that approach work for you?

Is the issue that SolArk's internal PV energy monitoring is not revenue grade / supported as a data source? I think that's a common concern, and that would lead to AC being the universal solution.

Why are you going from Enphase to SolArk which has barely started shipping? You can look at HoyMiles etc.

Why did you go straight to Microinverters? Instead of considering Grid Tie string inverters. The Growatt 10kW one is really popular here and has many expert fans that know the ins & outs.

 

[DIYrich]

So finding out that our power company Xcel requires AC coupled solar through a PV meter if over 10kw. Any idea if Sol-Ark is ever going to realse their micro inverters?

The iq8s + combiner box is pretty expensive when looking at everything when you need 38 panels.

So looking at other options and it seems Sol-Ark have micro inverters coming which might be a cheaper. Otherwise the only other way I could do this is with a smaller inverter then send that into a 15k off the gen port.

If anyone else on Xcel has ideas that'd be great!

Same problem in my area. I decided on a grid tied string inverter. The utility allows a transfer switch, so if the grid is down, the inverter can power the main panel (input1: grid, input 2: Load, Output: Main panel). Unfortunately, you get the transfer glitch.

 

[TacoMeat]

The basis for your question doesn't jive with my understanding of the technology / POCO policies.

Obviously I'm not in Xcel but this is my 2 cents.

Here with PG&E there are a lot of different limits for different system architectures. But AC coupling is the most restrictive. And having a export limit cap of 10kW-AC on the storage inverter (no limit on the grid tie inverters) simplifies things a lot, approval wise. For instance, skipping the production meter. Does that approach work for you?

Is the issue that SolArk's internal PV energy monitoring is not revenue grade / supported as a data source? I think that's a common concern, and that would lead to AC being the universal solution.

Why are you going from Enphase to SolArk which has barely started shipping? You can look at HoyMiles etc.

Why did you go straight to Microinverters? Instead of considering Grid Tie string inverters. The Growatt 10kW one is really popular here and has many expert fans that know the ins & outs.

Sadly as I understand it with Xcel + net metering, anything over 10kw MUST be AC tied going through a PV Meter. So with that my thinking is just doing micro inverters and doing a connection onto the GEN port. If you're under 10kw then apparently you can just use a two way meter and all is fine. I'm somewhat hoping I could just limit the 15k so something under 10kw export and that would be good enough.

I suppose I could do another inverter and put that through the PV meter then maybe into the GEN port so that the 15k "sees" everything, it just seems a bit dirty.

The main reason I'd like to have net metering is so I can use the power company as a "battery" so that I can pull power at night when charging our two EVs, even with that said I suppose I could do a larger DC array and just hope to pull power to charge cars while the sun is up, easier during the summer vs winter.

 

[zanydroid]

I'm somewhat hoping I could just limit the 15k so something under 10kw export and that would be good enough.

You can, they (and 18kpv for completeness) offer a workflow that most POCO accept to lock your inverter to 10kW. It involves getting a form signed by the right people. And you can’t modify the output power unilaterally, it is controlled by someone else.

I suppose I could do another inverter and put that through the PV meter then maybe into the GEN port so that the 15k "sees" everything, it just seems a bit dirty.

This is exactly what was suggested by the grid tie ideas above. It’s equally ugly or not ugly vs microinverters. If you have a typical roof or ground mount strings are probably objectively better. If you have some roof geometries microinverters are better.

If your POCO accepts 10kW limit then doing it all from one hybrid is IMO the most elegant and objectively the cheapest and possibly easiest to maintain. Separate string inverter has some special operational advantages like potentially able to stay operating when one inverter is down. If hybrid is down you can still export. If GTI is down you might move the strings over to the MPPT on hybrid. Is it worth $1500 more?

Yes, net metering is awesome. Note if you are in a place with very high summer cooling loads you can supplement with a system not eligible for exports and have a pretty solid ROI from just same day production.

 

[TacoMeat]

You can, they (and 18kpv for completeness) offer a workflow that most POCO accept to lock your inverter to 10kW. It involves getting a form signed by the right people. And you can’t modify the output power unilaterally, it is controlled by someone else.


This is exactly what was suggested by the grid tie ideas above. It’s equally ugly or not ugly vs microinverters. If you have a typical roof or ground mount strings are probably objectively better. If you have some roof geometries microinverters are better.

If your POCO accepts 10kW limit then doing it all from one hybrid is IMO the most elegant and objectively the cheapest and possibly easiest to maintain. Separate string inverter has some special operational advantages like potentially able to stay operating when one inverter is down. If hybrid is down you can still export. If GTI is down you might move the strings over to the MPPT on hybrid. Is it worth $1500 more?

Yes, net metering is awesome. Note if you are in a place with very high summer cooling loads you can supplement with a system not eligible for exports and have a pretty solid ROI from just same day production.

Yeah trying to keep hardware sprawl to a minimum, we're lucky with the amount of sunlight etc here, plus I have a great roof for a East / West array configuration.

Still very early in this adventure, so trying to keep my eye on possible ideas.

A Sol-ark microinverter / optimizer would be the best in my mind.

 

[zanydroid]

Ok, good luck.

The optimizer has been delayed many times.

Maybe someone overseas can provide operational experience on whether the Deye microinverter has special capabilities when paired with Deye hybrids. Enphase allows higher AC coupling to storage inverter size ratios when IQ8s are used.