single inverters vs micro-inverters

[Naptown]

i agree they will go away and are designed to go away. Never meant to be a permanent solution. The only way solar will become truly mainstream is when it achieves grid parity.
We are getting close in Maryland. Electric here averages $.14 KWH and rising about 4-5% per year. Some larger systems can be installed in the mid $4.00W range and produce about 1.2 KWH annually per watt DC. That puts us right at the cusp of parity without incentives or srec's. If we can bring installed costs down another 20-25% and if energy inflates at about the same rate i think the industry can become very mainstream.

[Sunking]

Rich with all due respect, Grid Parity IMHO is a hype word, there is no such thing. Where is the power going to come from on cloudy days, night and winter?

What i am driving at as an engineer is for every watt of solar you must have a conventional made watt to replace it at a moments notice. Why pay twice for it?

Where i live last year power cost me around $0.12/Kwh, today $0.096/Kwh. Some states at $0.06/Kwh. Electricity is cheap and plentiful, and can even be made less expensive with Uranium with a 5 million year supply here in the USA that is clean and safe. This whole energy problem is man made and silly, there is no crisis, just a political problem.

That is my 2-cents worth.

[Naptown]

D:
By grid parity i meant only that the cost of installing solar per KWH produced over it's life expectancy is about equal to the cost of purchasing it from a utility, counting in inflation etc. Not that the amount of generation is anywhere in the same galaxy in regards to MWH produced. I also modeled my assertion on my local utility rates. Not the rates paid by anyone else anywhere else.

I agree that we should be looking at nuclear options however this country needs to seriously get over it's NIMBY attitude.

Solar will never replace the grid and central plants at least in our lifetimes. There will have to be a huge leap in technology in both cells and storage capability before that happens.

I also realize that solar is not replacing or reducing the use of coal fire plants. These like nuclear plants provide base load generation. What we are doing is mostly replacing natural gas generation which is spun up rapidly during peak demands and perhaps reducing the amount of transmission lines that need to be larger to account for peak demands.

[Mike90250]

I need to pull this thread back onto it's topic:
* single inverters vs micro-inverters

[Sunking]

I agree that we should be looking at nuclear options however this country needs to seriously get over it's NIMBY attitude.

You got it friend.

[PerfectReign]

Just saw this thread again. I now have had my system in for almost three months.

I still like the idea of micro inverters. I have a buddy who is doing a 8.1 kW (CAC) system using a monolithic inverter. Apparently the inverter (I don't know the brand yet.) will allow for multiple runs, thus supposedly guarding against the loss in power due to shading. I'll notice occasionally that two of my panels are shaded in the morning but that the adjacent panels will be getting upwards of 180 W each. Once the shading moves I see all panels getting that power. (I have 224 W panels.)

As for heat, apparently his installer is moving the inverter to the garage in order to adjust for sun exposure. I wouldn't want that but he's satisfied. I'll see how it goes with his.

[Naptown]

Just saw this thread again. I now have had my system in for almost three months.

I still like the idea of micro inverters. I have a buddy who is doing a 8.1 kW (CAC) system using a monolithic inverter. Apparently the inverter (I don't know the brand yet.) will allow for multiple runs, thus supposedly guarding against the loss in power due to shading. I'll notice occasionally that two of my panels are shaded in the morning but that the adjacent panels will be getting upwards of 180 W each. Once the shading moves I see all panels getting that power. (I have 224 W panels.)

As for heat, apparently his installer is moving the inverter to the garage in order to adjust for sun exposure. I wouldn't want that but he's satisfied. I'll see how it goes with his.

The only way he is getting that is additionally adding optimizers to the system.
Basically these run in parallel strings and boost the output of all modules to about 300 volts. I have no experience with them but I'm sure Sunking will have an opinion regarding efficacy. I will wait for him to check in.