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Who's gone Solar

GAJ said:
My site assessment isn't until May 17th and I did get a notification from PGE that I'm non track as I'm sure you guys did as well.
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Non track?

Did you mean on track?

Your site assessment isn't until May 17th? Are you saying you will still ma,e it under NEM2? That is after the deadline.
 
bojangle said:
Non track?

Did you mean on track?

Your site assessment isn't until May 17th? Are you saying you will still ma,e it under NEM2? That is after the deadline.
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Yes, "on track" sorry, I'll fix that.

As long as PGE receives the proposed system details from the vendor before the deadline and gets it in the system (as per the above letter), you are good to go.

The new Net Billing tariff (NBT) will be available for customer-generators who submit interconnection applications on or after April 15, 2023.
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My guess is my system won't be up and running by September at the earliest due to the crunch.
 
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FYI, last year when we did ours we signed our proposal with our installer on 4/20 which triggered the PGE application process. That approval came in on 5/17. And we went live on 7/27. This was before the higher fed tax credits were announced.
 
Saw a post from Enphase on FB and finally clicked (they make the microinverters for Sun Power). Looks like an interesting system they are offering as it includes new micro-inverters that facilitate v2g and v2h capability. Vehicle to grid means your EV car can push energy back to the grid; and vehicle to home means your EV car can power your home during a power outage. This is the future.
https://enphase.com/ev-chargers/bidirectional
 
One question I do have is that like, I have done more solar panel installs than pretty much anybody, but I have never had a Solar Shingle install.

Has anyone installed solar shingles and can you share your experience?
 
well, my string inverter failed, a few years shy of it's 10 year warranty. It will be replaced for free because I have a PPA so don't technically own the equipment. But if I was on the hook for it, I'd generally be happy that the repair is straightforward (doesn't require much labor) and once complete, should guarantee pretty trouble free operations for a long time thereafter.

If I had microinverters, OTOH, I could see getting to year 15, and 25% of my inverters are failed. Since I'm on the hook for labor, I have to make the hard decision whether to pay people to crawl all over my roof and just replace all of them, or have to pay for constant repairs in the coming years and degraded array performance. Mark my words, in 15 years, lots of people are gonna regret getting microinverters.
 
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mercurial said:
If I had microinverters, OTOH, I could see getting to year 15, and 25% of my inverters are failed. Since I'm on the hook for labor, I have to make the hard decision whether to pay people to crawl all over my roof and just replace all of them, or have to pay for constant repairs in the coming years and degraded array performance. Mark my words, in 15 years, lots of people are gonna regret getting microinverters.
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Words marked. I'm gonna bet that microinverters from Enphase will outlast the life of the solar panels. Military-grade stuff.
 
mercurial said:
Mark my words, in 15 years, lots of people are gonna regret getting microinverters.
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25 year warranty with Sunpower.

SunPower covers the repair or replacement costs, while conventional solar warranties don’t.* Labor, shipping, parts – we’ve got your covered.**†

SunPower's comprehensive product and power coverage includes a 25 year warranty for everything on your roof (including panels, microinverters and racking) and 10 years for everything not on your roof (storage and monitoring).
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Docusigned PG&E form yesterday. WSC emailed to ensure I received the form.

Moving along.
 
ThinkFast said:
Words marked. I'm gonna bet that microinverters from Enphase will outlast the life of the solar panels. Military-grade stuff.
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Yea I could definitely end of being wrong. I haven't been able to find anything though, that spells out why a string inverter can't be made as durable as a micro inverter? So it's kinda weird to me that microinverters have such better warranties.

Also heres my suspicion: the panels are gonna possible last a lot longer than their warranty. Like 30, 35, maybe 40 years. Mine have barely degraded at all, output-wise. And if they did eventually end up at around 80% after 25 years, I'm not actually sure I would replace them. I would probably instead just add a few new ones.
 
There is no chance any inverter (micro or string) with electronics in a hot environment will outlast the panels. I have 40 y/o panels that are still producing >90% of day 1 power. Manu's are far better today. 50 years in earth orbit in extreme environments they still rock, 'cuz they are basically a rock that placed in the sun makes power!
 
wow that's great news then. These are my panels.

If I was starting from scratch, I'd buy a pallet of these fuckers, and spend $2000 on a new fronius inverter. Then I'd pay a roofer a couple thousand to attach mounts/racks to the roof, and an electrician a couple thousand to hook up the wiring. A nearly 8 kw for $10,000 (I guess $7000 after credits?)
 
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mercurial said:
wow that's great news then. These are my panels.

If I was starting from scratch, I'd buy a pallet of these fuckers, and spend $2000 on a new fronius inverter. Then I'd pay a roofer a couple thousand to attach mounts/racks to the roof, and an electrician a couple thousand to hook up the wiring. A nearly 8 kw for $10,000 (I guess $7000 after credits?)
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Although Trina makes quality panels, I would shy away from these old used ones at that price. Consider these -
https://sunelec.com/shop/solar-panels/suniva-330w-solar-panels/
 
FYI I spent $884 year last on gas and electricity combined. Just calculated it for tax return filing purposes since I rent out part of my house.
 
Starpower said:
Although Trina makes quality panels, I would shy away from these old used ones at that price. Consider these -
https://sunelec.com/shop/solar-panels/suniva-330w-solar-panels/
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I have 17 panels and am possibly interested in adding 5. Would it not make sense to add the same ones, of a similar age? It was my understanding that the entire string can only be as strong as the weakest panel. Also is there any drawback to having unequal panel count on each string?

I guess PG&E doesn't allow you to increase system size by > 10% or else they can force you onto a new tarrif, but are they even paying attention? I would suspect not, but have no way to verify.
 
So dumb question if they outlaw gas water heaters...what happens next? I think we discussed it already but don't electric water heaters use a ton of electricity?

What are our best options? I mean my gas one likely won't die for another 10+ years I just replaced it a few years ago.
 
mercurial said:
Yea I could definitely end of being wrong. I haven't been able to find anything though, that spells out why a string inverter can't be made as durable as a micro inverter? So it's kinda weird to me that microinverters have such better warranties.

Also heres my suspicion: the panels are gonna possible last a lot longer than their warranty. Like 30, 35, maybe 40 years. Mine have barely degraded at all, output-wise. And if they did eventually end up at around 80% after 25 years, I'm not actually sure I would replace them. I would probably instead just add a few new ones.
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Can you add new panels w/o a NEM change under the radar? Does the gateway talk to PGE or the vendor that then talks to PGE? Or can you swap out lower density panels for more efficient ones?
 
needles said:
Can you add new panels w/o a NEM change under the radar? Does the gateway talk to PGE or the vendor that then talks to PGE? Or can you swap out lower density panels for more efficient ones?
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You can add without "going under the radar." PGE calls this out specifically under their NEM 2 system rules.
 
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