Hi All
Quick Question (first time poster / long time watcher) - has anyone undertaken research or tried/succeeded in implementing a Solar Only Crypto Farm?
What I mean by Solar Only is no grid connection or supporting battery for night times.
When the Sun Shines, Miners come out of a hibernate state and with the Sun Goes Down/Shaded Panels, Miners go into a hibernate state.
Why I ask is that I have access large sunny area (many acres if wanted) at zero cost and access to really cheap solar. Battery storage would be horrendously expensive for farm build and there is not really a viable alternative storage solution (yet). Recognise efficiency drop in not running the ASICS 24hrs a day but the capital expenditure is less if no batteries involved and could balance the facility cost overall against overall output.
If yes - would love to hear how it went.
Thanks!
Hey Adam, I don’t have any answers but another question that I’m sure someone on the forum might be able to answer. What would happen to the miners if electricity is constantly turning on and off, would it wreck the miners? I know where I live my solar varies all the time and can change from 100% production to 20% production in a heart beat and that’s what would concern me.
Cheers and good luck
I was thinking about starting farm , on wind generators + solar …I have plenty of wind on family house in village… Wind energy is cheaper than producing solar, because I have average every day at least 5 m per second wind on high of 2 m , and you place wind generator on 6 m hight … Mesaurment is by official institute here in Serbia… So I will have atleast 5 m per second…
With that on Wind generator of 2KW for example I would have 0.8 KW on hour / some times higher some times lower… + I need OFF grid hibrid invertor of 2KW … Investment is 2000 usd… Sum is 7000 KW/h… with price of 0.17 usd/h is 1190 usd per year savings… So ROI is 2 years…
On solar here is calculation 10 KW solar plant - 10 000 usd ( with off grid hibrid invertor ) , I can produce 12000 KW per year… So saving is with tariff in red zone 0.17 usd… ROI is 5 years…
First you must thing about next problem your peak with solar isnt in early morning or early evening… so you will lose 4-5 hours of sun… you will have some energy but probaly not enough so it is wasted if you do not supply from power company… You can use more panels to resolve this problem but you will need to invest more many , and to lower your power cosumption …
Second problem is reacitive power of panels , and invertor if invertor is directly conected to consumer… This is way you need power company or batteries , with that power invertor will balance woltage and you will have 220 V on your miner… So dont use OFF grid invertors it will burn your miners… Use OFF grid hibrid invertors + batteries or ON grid invertors…
You can adjust your invertor to shut down miners over night when there is no sun… At my place is diffrent situation over night I have tariff on power betwen 0,01 usd to 0,05 usd per KW per hour in red zone… So would probaly use night to charge batteries and for direct consuption on miners That is why i want off grid hibrid inverter
“You can adjust your invertor to shut down miners over night when there is no sun… At my place is diffrent situation over night I have tariff on power betwen 0,01 usd to 0,05 usd per KW per hour in red zone… So would probaly use night to charge batteries and for direct consuption on miners That is why i want off grid hibrid inverter”
This is also something you might want to check is your off peak night rates. Not sure on your situation as to why you want it solely off grid (maybe too big of a distance to run an expensive power cable?) but if you’re paying 1c-5c/kwh between say 12.30am-5.30am then you could be leaving money on the table, just a thought.
looking forward to hearing more!
Hey, Adam. Personally, I wouldn’t want to be turning ASICs on and off regularly like that. My gut is telling me that hardware designed under the assumption of running 24/7/365 isn’t going to tolerate regular, abrupt, power cycling like you’re describing. You have to consider that these things get really hot and power cycling them, especially overnight when the ambient temperatures are already low, is going to cause a lot of thermal stress on the chips, circuit boards and solder joins in between.
That said, I’ve been working on a solar setup in my mining shed for a while now and am just about nearing completion. You’re absolutely right, batteries are very expensive. I’ve been working to source second hand components for a lot of my build and batteries, even though I’m building a large portion of them from recycled lithium cells, salvaged from surplus e-bike and scooter batteries, they are the majority of my up front costs in setting it all up. In the end, though, I think it’s going to be worth it as this turns my energy cost in to a capital expensive instead of an operational one, not to mention any tax incentives available that help offset the initial cost of installation making that ROI number even smaller in the end.
It is OFF grid hibrid invertor … Hibrid means that when you do not have power from solar and wind you are using power from grid, and over night when i have low cost 0,01 to 0,05 usd per kw per h I recharce bateries if that day was little wind or solar. Cost of battery for 10 KW that is for 3 big miners is 5000 usd … This hibrid invertor cant send power to grid ,so for balancing your power you need batteries … If you do not have batteries , and you have more power than your use on miners , you will waste diffrence… So optimisation is KEY…
If I install On grid , max I can install is 10.8 KW plant , but I have lot of permits to gather and procedure is killing…And I have stupid law here in Serbia , when I sell my power to power company I have to pay VAT , also when buying power also have to pay VAT … VAT is 20% , in aposlute value this is 50 to 100 usd per month on 20 KW plant… Not much but on long run better to have off grid hibrid solar and wind with capacity 20-30-40 - 50 KW plant , and I dont need permits for that
ALSO YOUR LOCAL REGULATIONS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW…
Unfortunatly this bear market killed me…So I need to wait better days for this… for KW 30 wind + 20 KW solar + batteries 20 KW I need 40-45000 usd to invest plus cost of miners with max 20 KW compsution for example 6 pcs of KA3 that is 48 000 usd… Sum is 90 to 100 000 usd… ROI of this investment on today prices and dificulty would be 13 months for power plant and miners
after 13 months… you are WINNER no power cost just income… I think on 8 KA3 it would be max up to 3000 KDA per month
See problem with u is most of us are usa and it cost 250k for a good hybrid system
I plan to order solar panels in China , or to buy second hand on auction , there is lot of them in Europe… And wind generator from Ista brezee from Turkey , they have stock in Bulgaria , 500 km from me… just to gether my funds…
Ista brezee delivers by DHL to USA… , and for import for example Jinko solar panels from China to USA i think there is no problem
I have 30kw of these batteries I bought for $9,000 USD waiting to be installed, been saying it’s near for months but at best by the end of Jan I can get the ball rolling and get a 40kw solar system installed. It will be grid tied and will be charging the batteries on off peak night rates
Let me know if you need someone to uh… to keep those batteries warm for you until you’re ready. I could probably spare some room in my shed to uh… store them 
All said and done how much did u spend for it that like 100 solar pannel for 40kw
I’ve been quoted what is equivalent to $20,700 USD. Unfortunately here in Aus we live under the government’s thumb because we are little children that need to be told what to do and I can’t arrange to get it done without their permission. I saw a guy on this forum who from memory had either 30-40kw of solar off grid with 90kw of lithium backup and his array was on his shipping container that could be folded in or out and I was so jealous it loooked so cool, but here you can’t have an array on a roof that overhangs the roof, and at random times the gov is going to come to my land to check I have planted a buffer zone between my house and my apple trees so it’s not like they won’t see it. Just been such a pain to get started
HI Adam,
I think you would have a battery backup-buffer (UPS) system to stabilize the power to your machines. Like the one person said, solar isn’t stabile for various reasons. Minimal storage would also power the machines in the “Hibernate” state, keep them spinning to not cycle the drives and reboot. You would mine about 60% of the time because of shutting down at night. Good luck and it will be interesting to see how it works out.