New solar thinking

This is stolen from the Architect/Builder thread. Curious what folks think about current SOLAR. We are considering SOLAR, but not in the budget until later. If we installed solar, I would like to think of net-metering AND battery, since we would want to have backup when another "brown-out" occurs, but primary be Noreco... I have heard that noreco will not allow both those. Thoughts / experiences ???

 

I think it was 2017 when my friend put solar on the roof of his house in Tierra Alta. (He has passed on now so cannot ask him). It was/is tied to the grid and he ended up with zero to pay on his power bill. I remember him saying he also got a yearly check from NORECO.

At the same time I put in a battery backup system in my house to get me through brownouts. It had nothing to do with NORECO. I do not see why you could not get a grid tie in AND THEN do an internal battery backup system without even mentioning it to NORECO.

 

I want to start out with just a few panels for lighting and an off grid system. I believe that if you want to build an expandable system you need to use micro-inverters. I think DPX is the largest supplier in the area and I will check them out on my next visit to see what equipment they use and if they have a system size limit. I have found a decent do-it-yourself supplier in the states. They have a ten panel minimum system requirement but they ship all the wiring and parts needed for a project.

 

From what I understand, Noreco doesn't do net-metering (a meter that runs backward if you generate more electricity than you use), but installs a second meter instead to measure how much you deliver back to the grid.
Their rationale for this is simple, they only pay you about half of what they charge you per kwh.
Obviously, this is a rather unfavourable aspect when making ROI (return on investment) calculations.
In my thinking this and the lack of any subsidies when installing solar makes it
a. unfeasible to install a really big system that would allow to have zero electricity bills (as in: you could but you'd not get any sort of acceptable ROI) unless a future further price decline of suitable batteries is going to happen (so there would be no need to deliver much electricity back to Noreco at all);
b. still very feasible to get an installation that more or less covers let's say 80% of your average daytime use of electricity, while you don't deliver much, if any, electricity back into the Noreco grid.
c. suitable batteries (4,000 plus charge/discharge cycles, built-in BMS, allowing deep discharge), so not your typical car battery, are of the LiFePo4 type, currently around 1000$ for a 12V 200 Ah. Two of those, with an inverter would probably be ok to shield you from most blackouts (not the full day "scheduled" ones), but
d. to cover all your nighttime electricity use in this country, depending on how many aircons you run, you might need 10 or more such batteries, so a solid 10,000$ at today's prices.
Disclaimer: I am not an expert (except for the ROI calculations), and my information might therefore be wrong.

 

Do you know what kind of solar panels? Many different kinds and size, also the inverter could make a difference.
Never heard of solar panels not working for 4 months of the year because of bad weather.

 

Even in cloudy conditions some panels will harvest.
Do Solar Panels Work In Rain And Cloudy Weather?

 

Totally correct.

It is quite possible that the fellow with the huge compound sized his solar arrays to cover his bill on good days then tied to the grid so that on bad days he could draw from it.

It is totally conceivable that such a huge compound could consume 40K PHP per month in electric usage so a system that produced that amount on sunny days would likely only produce 1/2 on the cloudy and rainy days. If so then a bill of 20K a month on bad months is still in the Plus column.

 

Having a 4kw system here in Scotland I can say; in the month of Dec I only get around 50kw, Jan I will only get around 70 then as the days get progressively longer it increases and peaks in May at around 600kw, some very rare days when it is really cloudy I get nothing at all but if these dark clouds part and we get just a glimmer of sun this will kick start it and when it returns to cloudy again it will still tick over giving some power at a very low rate.

In a grid tied system an added safety measure must be applied, this is wired up through some sort of switching system to prevent current flowing into the mains while the maintenance men work on the lines, my system here in UK shuts down completely in a power cut and during this power cut I get no Solar at all, I guess there in PH this will be the same and batt back up just may add some complications to this???