I am a partner in a solar company, hit me up if you got any questions.
I suggest pulling in 480v 3ph and using something like Solar edge 99kw syncro with optimizers. You got good ground so either use helical piles you just screw them in the ground or similar. Build off that, fast and cheep. SE has good 25yr warranty. You’ll want something like a 450w longi panel or the highest wattage you can get in the $.50 a watt or lower, you’ll save a ton on racking and components.
It will be a fun project.
Unsure if 3 phase will be an option for me, this power company is fucking miserable to try and deal with.
Did you have any zoning issues with the county in trying to set this up?
3 phase power, and Industrial use power billing rates are typically determined by peak load and power factor. Single phase Residential power has that and many other billing opportunities such as time of day use and Low seasonal rates.
Talking a megawatt though, you would want 3 phase power. A typical 4160/13,800 VAC to 480 VAC transformer though is over 3 MVA in size. Smaller 480 VAC to 120/208 transformers in the range of 30-45 KVA are typically attached to individual breakers on 480 Volt panels supplied by the transformer and they feed your 120/208 volt panels.
Motors are a big reason 3 phase power would be expensive because they have high starting current and poor power factor. Mining RIGS however are different. They can startup slow (one DAG at a time) so peak load wouldn’t be a factor. They also have great power factor … Platinum Plus/Titanium … so billing rates would be among the best. It’s that BIG MVA transformer and running in the lines that would be expensive.
Solar inverters come in both single and 3 phase models, so that’s not an issue as long as you buy the right type. You should probably use a general contractor for solar equipment to get quotes on that 3 phase system. Anyone setting up a solar farm whose size is around 1 MW should use a Solar contractor for many reasons including Cost, Permits, Insurance, etc.
So, to answer your question, Have a Solar Contractor Design & Permit your Solar Farm. They will have more pull with the power company.!
Hope this helps … and 10 seconds with Tails …
You will save a ton of you can get 3 phase. On wire, inverters, optimizers ect.
Check with your local codes, if you don’t need panel level rapid shutdown or rapid shutdown at all you can forgo panel level monitoring and just do large and long high voltage strings like 1,000-1,500 volt. Generally with ground mounts you don’t need rapid shutdown, that could shave another 10-15% then you could use any commercial inverter and save 50-70 per panel not using optimizers
For a system that size doing high voltage and 3 phase would be 20-35% cheaper if not more then single phase.
And yah, I have said it before, understand your commercial bill on the mining side. You may have low rate but extremely high demand charge. Luckily mining has a very steady demand so it’s easy to calculate and know ahead of time.
Kyle
@VoskCoin Quick question. What machines do you plan to run on your Farm? We’re currently planning the same thing in Austria. Can I message you somewhere to discuss what we try to build?
Thank you @cbalbrecht , please check the update on the post and see if you can help to know if the system is alright, because the batteries are 4 x new 12V 100ah and don’t last too long for only 2 laptops.
Appreciate any toughts.
I’ve been toying with an idea combining the solar panels and container enclosed farms. Build a 20’ or 40’ container farm under a series of panels sized to power what that container farm will require for power + some %. No battery storage. Start the panels 6+ inches above the ground, (so you can mow the weeds), up and over the container. The panels will help shade the container so you don’t have to deal with solar heat gain. The exhausted heat will help keep the panels clear of ice and snow.
This facilitates building the farm slowly one container at a time. The containers are temporary buildings, no property tax increase. You can built a container hook it up to the power company and use the income to finance the panels. Then sell excess power to help build the next container farm. Lather rinse repeat
Each farm is self contained with its own meter not owned by the power Co., for tracking power usage, one main meter for building. If one farm or set of panels go down only that farm is affected.
Looking to get input on incentives. If I installed a brand new system in 2020 and claimed the federal and state incentives for the system can I claim the incentives again in 2022 if I install another new system on the other side of my roof?
Any update on your system?
Vosk, Awesome Job! Love watching and following!
I am a GPU miner and wish I would of continued buying when I started. Missed a little opportunity but still in it. Looking to upgrade to ASIC mining asap.
I am getting a late start on SOLAR Glad to hear that the Tax Credit was extended to 2022 for the 26%
The link no longer works and was wondering what everyone is currently finding for Biggest Bang for Buck on Solar Panels? The Inverter is still available SMA SunnyBoy.
Thoughts and update? Thank you!
60 kW for $1200. Just hijack a diesel truck and you’re ready to go …
@VoskCoin . Hey Drew. I’m Sean and a civil engineer living here in Northern Virginia. I’ve been following you for a while now and hear you on the recent frustrations with permitting wetland/stream crossings through the Corps and DEQ. I work for Kimley-Horn and we help clients permit solar projects and wetlands impacts throughout the commonwealth. I’d love to get 30 min of your time to catch up and see what you’re experiencing and how I may be able to help. I look up to what you’re trying to do and respect the success you’ve had. Congrats!
The Green Volter HQ (TGV)? Since it uses clean energy idk lol its hard to come up with something
bc1qg7pqrqqy7x2lany2p7xejqkgggw8p7y2hxae40
Just want to say thank you to everyone that’s contributed to this thread, going to compile all the responses in a video soon, do some more digging, and go from there!
Have a look at hybrid inverters, they are grid tied, but you can add a battery bank later if you like. 48v lithium 19" rack mount batteries are simple to install, and outlive sealed led acid batteries by many times.
If your electricity meter is mechanical, and will spin backwards if you are generating more energy than you are using, then take advantage of being able to use the grid as storage, and oversize the solar array to compensate for night time mining, and forget about batteries.
BE AWARE,… Some new mains energy meters are digital, (instead of mechanical) and will not “spin backwards”. I was forced by my energy company to have a digital meter installed, and it put a real damper on my solar instillation.
Growatt and Victron inverters are also worth a look, besides SMA.
Good luck brother Vosk 
Been enjoying the channel, and just started going beyond a single gaming rig on Nicehash to having every Goldshell “box” there is, the iPollo G1 mini and v1 mini classic plus, and put a s37 based 5 card GPU rig together in the last 3 months. So I know what “Box” is best…
Now that my power bill has spiked a lot, I’ve got a 12.5Kw solar array and battery waiting to go up as soon as it stops raining here. This made me look at if I should get a real miner like an S19 while they are cheap, or maybe gamble on some older S17s - but I can’t seem to find any way to justify the power use of anything SHA256 compared to the efficiency of ETH(rip)/ETC/KDA asics.
This makes me wonder just how big is the Vosk solar farm going to be? Once you a few 3Kw ASIC’s up your panel count is going to need to be quite high.
For mine - I have just a single phase line in with 5KW max feed back to grid. I’m using a 5Kw and a 6Kw inverter to handle teh number of panels, with the Sungrow modular batteries - as the Powerwall is too expensive to expand.
In Summer I’ll have power to export, and in winter I will barely be able to charge a battery. So the batteries will charge on cheap overnight power to start draining when the expensive day rate power starts but the sun isn’t up yet.
This is why I was looking at hi load ASICs. In Sumer I’d have Kw to spare. I’d rather mine on them than send it to the grid for 1/2 the price I buy it at. My sums tell me I’d be better of with X4-1U or KD-Lite than any Antminer or other SHA256 unit on a $/W basis.
Who has an opinion?
Mining BTC directly is an attractive thought, but one I can’t seem to justify the power use for.
Hey Vosk been enjoying your journey of you building out your crypto solar farm. Just a quick question are you still trying to achieve 10,000 watts at any given time of day with solar or have your plans changed? Sorry if you’ve already said, Thanks legend.
Just want to thank everyone that has contributed to this thread, getting closer every day and once I get this initial electric pulled and turned on its going to be time to start getting serious about solar powering the mining farm!
just bumping for any additional helpful input