5 ms·

> less than 2.5 acres per megawatt This is actually quite amazing. I wonder what the lifetime is for the panels.

• AnimalMuppet 4y ago
  That sounds like if I have a decently-sized suburban yard, I should be able to throw enough of these out there to run my life.
  • Tade0 4y ago
    My co-worker did just that, but at a much higher latitude(49°) than Texas - he couldn't be arsed with building racks for the panels himself and having people do it for him would cost too much in his view. While the panels are indeed cheap this, along with the DIY wood gas combined heat and power generator, are measures taken for energy security, not profit.
  • tuatoru 4y ago
    Yeah, nah, these are for utility scale PV plants, sorry. In a few years, you might be able to buy a roll of PV film in a box and unroll it in your yard. The box it comes in would have all the gubbins to connect up to the house. Not quite here yet, though.
  • toomanybeersies 4y ago
    You don't even really need to tile your yard with solar panels. Depending on location, you could be self-sufficient(ish) with 10 kW of solar, 25kWh of batteries, and a 10 kVA generator for cloudy weeks. Total cost is around $40k. However, unless you're rural or somewhere with poor grid reliability it's probably not worth the expense of being off-grid. Generally speaking, due to generous feed-in tariffs you would be (financially) better off staying connected to the grid than spending the additional money required to handle periods of cloudy weather.
• _ea1k 4y ago
  Usually the expected life is ~30 years. They may last longer. I do wonder if pests and moisture will be early failure causes in this configuration though. Then again, if it saves enough money, maybe that doesn't matter. TBH, the part that lasts the least amount of time is often the inverter.