r/solarenergy

Curious how EPC contractors and developers handle preliminary site screening..are you pulling irradiance data manually from PVGIS or NASA POWER, checking substation proximity on Google Maps, that sort of thing? How many sites do you typically evaluate before one makes it to a proper study, and roughly how long does each screen take?

It is an older model. It was installed about ten years ago and it stopped communicating. The panels are still generating power. It just isn’t going to the power company. The original installer went out of business. I have sought three bids to fix it. They range from $150 to $630 to $1,000. Each agree on the issue, the inverter was discontinued and Solar Edge no longer supports it. They dumped me without any notice that I am aware of. I reached out months ago to Solar Edge Customer Support. The site would crash as soon as I tried to submit an inquiry. Tried just now and it worked but no response.

Bottom line—is this a known issue and what can I do about it?

After about nine months running a balcony solar system with battery storage, I finally sat down and did the full financial analysis. I want to share the real numbers because I think there's a lot of optimistic math floating around and not enough honest breakdowns.

My setup: two 400W panels on a south facing balcony in central Germany (Frankfurt area), mounted on the railing at roughly 30 degrees. The battery unit is a Jackery HomePower 2000 Ultra with the base 2 kWh storage, feeding into the apartment via Schuko plug at 800W. Total system cost was roughly EUR 1,350 after a small municipal subsidy.

Now, the generation numbers. From September 2024 through May 2025, I logged everything through the app. In the good months (April, May) I was pulling in about 3.2 to 3.8 kWh on clear days. In winter (December, January), that dropped to 0.4 to 1.1 kWh on most days, with some days producing almost nothing. My rough projection for the full year is somewhere around 750 to 850 kWh total generation. That is far below the "up to 2,400 kWh" figure you sometimes see quoted, but that number assumes perfect conditions with maximum panel capacity, which no balcony setup realistically achieves.

The self consumption question is where the battery actually matters. Without storage, I'd estimate my self consumption ratio would be around 30 to 40 percent, because I work from home only two days a week and most generation happens midday when nobody is using much. With the 2 kWh battery, I'm shifting a meaningful chunk of that solar energy into the evening hours when we actually cook, run the dishwasher, and watch TV. My self consumption ratio is closer to 70 percent now. That's the real value of the battery for someone who isn't home during the day.

So let's do the math. At roughly 800 kWh generated per year and 70 percent self consumption, that's 560 kWh I'm actually using instead of buying from the grid. My current electricity tariff is EUR 0.34 per kWh (Stadtwerke Frankfurt, nothing fancy). That means I'm saving roughly EUR 190 per year. The remaining 240 kWh that I feed into the grid earns me effectively nothing because my contract doesn't compensate for feed in at this scale.

EUR 190 per year against a EUR 1,350 investment gives me a payback period of just over seven years. And that's actually a somewhat optimistic calculation because I haven't factored in the standby consumption of the battery unit itself (about 3W continuous, which adds up to roughly 26 kWh per year) or any potential degradation over time.

For comparison, if I had gone with panels only and no battery (total cost around EUR 400 to 500 for a basic 800W kit), the self consumption would drop but the payback would be much faster. Roughly EUR 90 to 110 saved per year against a EUR 450 investment means payback in about four years. The battery nearly triples the system cost while roughly doubling the savings. Financially, the panels alone are the stronger play.

So why did I go with battery storage anyway? Partly because I wanted to maximize what I actually use rather than feeding energy into the grid for free. Partly because the idea of storing solar energy for evening use just felt right from a practical standpoint. And partly because I'm betting that electricity prices in Europe aren't going down anytime soon. If my tariff increases to EUR 0.40 or higher, the payback math improves significantly.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone. I genuinely enjoy watching the real time generation data and knowing that my evening coffee machine is running on solar energy I collected that afternoon. But I think it's important to be transparent that the financial case for balcony solar with battery storage is not a slam dunk at current prices, especially compared to panels alone.

I'd love to hear from others who've done similar calculations on their balcony setups. What electricity price are you paying, and what payback timeline are you looking at? I'm especially curious whether the financial case or the environmental motivation was the bigger factor in your decision.

Last summer my bill jumped way higher than I expected just from running the AC normally, and honestly that’s when I started seriously reading about solar.

Before that I never cared much about energy stuff. But lately it feels like every summer bill gets worse no matter how careful you try to be.

I’m still trying to figure out whether solar actually makes sense financially or if the upfront cost is worth it.

Curious if rising electric bills were the thing that pushed other people into looking at solar too.

I'm looking to sell back to the grid the excess electic I have in the battery but it's a bit complicated. I'm with octopus and they have paused (their word) the tarrif and I looked at Eon. However it says I need some kind of certificate before I can go on theirs.

Can anyone break it down to steps that a 5 year old could follow please.

Hello! I’ve recently moved to a super sunny property in Oregon with ~7 acres of farmland. 2-3 acres we have our house and front and backyard with vegetable/fruit gardens, but the rest we aren’t doing anything with. We recently thought about the possibility of starting a solar farm on the rest of the property and are starting to do research, but I’m wondering if anyone here can give advice. We wanted to originally do something like potatoes, but those take up a lot of water and our property’s well isn’t that massive to sustain that many potatoes lol so we started looking into solar for a bit of passive income.

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated!

I recently uploaded a detailed breakdown of how I won a Marie Curie MSCA grant with a SHERPA proposal scoring 94.20%.

In the video, I go through:
• The real Evaluation Summary Report
• What reviewers liked and criticized
• Excellence, Impact, and Implementation sections
• Common MSCA proposal mistakes
• Gantt charts, dissemination strategy, and knowledge transfer
• Practical proposal-writing tips from a real funded application

I also discuss how competitive MSCA calls are becoming and what applicants can do to improve their chances.

The project itself focuses on self-healing perovskite photovoltaics and micro-concentrator architectures beyond the Shockley–Queisser limit.

I hope this can help future applicants preparing MSCA or Horizon Europe proposals.

Would love to hear feedback from others who applied for MSCA or European grants.

I'm interested how people in Canada check systems on a daily basis.

These days, many setups come with apps or web dashboards that show production, grid import and export, battery status, inverter alerts, and usage patterns. I have seen some generic smart tablets online like the PAD 200, but I am not asking for product recommendations nor intending to promote such tablets.

For Canadian solar users, do you have a tablet or screen set up at home specifically to monitor your system or do you mostly just check the inverter/app on your phone?

I would particularly be interested in whether a dashboard that is always visible helps with:

I'm interested how people in Canada check on their solar systems on a daily basis.

These days, many setups come with apps or web dashboards that show production, grid import and export, battery status, inverter alerts, and usage patterns. I have seen some generic smart tablets online like the PAD 200, but I am not asking for product recommendations nor intending to promote such tablets.

For Canadian solar users, do you have a tablet or screen set up at home specifically to monitor your system or do you mostly just check the inverter/app on your phone?

I would particularly be interested in whether a dashboard that is always visible helps with:

I'm interested how people in Canada check on their solar systems on a daily basis.

These days, many setups come with apps or web dashboards that show production, grid import and export, battery status, inverter alerts, and usage patterns. I have seen some generic smart tablets online like the PAD 200, but I am not asking for product recommendations nor intending to promote such tablets.

For Canadian solar users, do you have a tablet or screen set up at home specifically to monitor your system or do you mostly just check the inverter/app on your phone?

I would particularly be interested in whether a dashboard that is always visible helps with:

* understanding winter vs summer production

* noticing inverter or panel issues earlier

* timing electricity use around solar generation

* tracking battery behavior if you have storage

* making solar more understandable for the household

I've noticed the PAD 200 and other smart tablets spoken about on the web but not looking for specific products. I am more curious by the suggestion of a tablet being the solar dashboard. This dashboard has production info, battery status and grid import/export and inverter alerts.

Has having a display that is always visible really help you to manage your energy use, or is it unnecessary when the system is running normally?

With two Wall Connectors and proper load sharing, both cars can stay plugged in overnight while the system manages the available power.

The second charger does not magically make electricity cheaper or double the home’s electrical capacity. It just makes the overnight charging window easier to use.

I was visited by the sales men again and theyre selling the same deal they offered 10 years ago. A 25 year lease to own full roof of panels with a tesla battery for $362 a month (which is my average electric bill with SCE) with the possibility of price increase 3.5% a year. No cost installation. I'd basically be switching who I bought my electricity from. Has anyone done this? Is this worth it? Thanks in advance

Edit to add: if i sold the house they said they would move the panels to my new house anywhere in the country for free. The company is Axia by Qcells. 18 panels with 11,826 kWh yearly produced.

So a door to door sales guy came by my mom's house looking to sell a solar panel solution. She invited him to come back the next day and he stayed for 3 hours and had a meeting with her. The next day, she started having second thoughts. She tried texting him and also the installer. The CONTRACT THAT SHE SIGNED says their website is axiasolar.com which does not exist. That goes to an unfinished Wordpress website. There IS axiasolarusa.com but the actual address on the contract doesn't work. The contact email (help@axiasolar.com) does not work either. What is going on here? She called the phone number on the contract and just got a person who said they would pass on her info and somebody would call her back.