5 ms·

Solar is stupidly cheap. I'm building a 40kw hybrid system with 50kwh of storage for less than 20k USD in Thailand. It's this cheap because there is 0% duty on

by jpgvm 3y ago

Solar is stupidly cheap. I'm building a 40kw hybrid system with 50kwh of storage for less than 20k USD in Thailand. It's this cheap because there is 0% duty on my solar panels and inverters, I was able to source locally made aluminium racking. Of Course that is a DIY price, commercial installation would have been a lot more. However there was still 30% duty on the batteries that doesn't need to be there IMO. Australia should negotiate a deal with China, remove all import tariffs on green energy products in exchange for guarantees of local manufacturing being setup here within 5 years and then subsidize the shit out of everyone doing rooftop solar with storage. If you remove the tariffs on LFP you can easily get down to $100USD/kwh for storage and similarly for panels $125USD/kw for rated power. If everyone is running rooftop solar w/storage and not doing any export (or minimal export) the grid impact is purely positive and doesn't require smart grid shit to regulate things. It's possible to add an absolutely massive amount of capacity this way cheaply, without tech or solutions that don't exist yet and without much political capital being burnt other an upsetting some butthurt Americans that you are doing business with China.

hackerlight 3y ago
What's the net metering situation in Thailand. I assume not that good if you decided to get storage. Did you get a lifepo4 battery?
- jpgvm 3y ago
  There is net metering but it has two major problems. 1) It's hard to get approved, doubly hard for a DIY installed system, even if I could jump through the hoops (eletrical engineers drawing etc) there is also a quota so there isn't a gaurantee it would be approved. 2) The rate isn't that great, it's about 30% of retail. However all of that is moot in my case because my power needs exceed that of the available utility power at my location. So I essentially have a 3 phase completely off grid solar system. So why did I say hybrid? Well that is because I do have a utility supply but it's a 15/45A supply but it's got horrible voltage drop (I'm 2.5km up a mountain from the transformer) and it's 1ph and I need 3ph power for my EV charger, air conditioning and pool pumps. So what I did was add an AC charger that is configured to charge from grid if the batteries drop below 30% state of charge. So it's essentially a hybrid system, DC coupled to the 48V batteries but really the grid supply is just a backup, the system is specced to operate completely off-grid. Yes the battery system is LFP, I went for 5 x 48V 200AH server rack mounted packs in parallel. I'll probably also eventually add a diesel generator so that there is no way I will ever lose power but for now the batteries + grid charger are going to be enough.

by jpgvm 3y ago

hackerlight 3y ago

What's the net metering situation in Thailand. I assume not that good if you decided to get storage. Did you get a lifepo4 battery?

jpgvm 3y ago
There is net metering but it has two major problems. 1) It's hard to get approved, doubly hard for a DIY installed system, even if I could jump through the hoops (eletrical engineers drawing etc) there is also a quota so there isn't a gaurantee it would be approved. 2) The rate isn't that great, it's about 30% of retail. However all of that is moot in my case because my power needs exceed that of the available utility power at my location. So I essentially have a 3 phase completely off grid solar system. So why did I say hybrid? Well that is because I do have a utility supply but it's a 15/45A supply but it's got horrible voltage drop (I'm 2.5km up a mountain from the transformer) and it's 1ph and I need 3ph power for my EV charger, air conditioning and pool pumps. So what I did was add an AC charger that is configured to charge from grid if the batteries drop below 30% state of charge. So it's essentially a hybrid system, DC coupled to the 48V batteries but really the grid supply is just a backup, the system is specced to operate completely off-grid. Yes the battery system is LFP, I went for 5 x 48V 200AH server rack mounted packs in parallel. I'll probably also eventually add a diesel generator so that there is no way I will ever lose power but for now the batteries + grid charger are going to be enough.