Standalone solar systems

This is probably for Sagra more than anyone else but has anyone seen this Smartflower

It looks fantastic to me. I love the plug and play idea of it and the fact it is stand-alone

WOW, that is different, I would expect it to be pretty expensive. Great idea though and it shows how things are progressing.

V

For the basic one (ie no batteries) it's €12,600 plus €1,300 installation fee. I didn't think that's too bad. I am guessing the stand alone version is more but I can't see any figures anywhere.

Cool isn't it?!

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-economics-of-teslas-solar-roof

And yesterday Eton Musk unveiled his solar roof tiles -  things are looking up.

That price is not bad at all really, biggest concern for me would be the wind, here in Le Marche as you know, it can blow a bit, although the automated folding away is just superb,

V

Looking at the 'graph' of daily output and usage, I note the usage peaks at about 2kW - so useful for lighting and a few bits and bobs only.

Cooker, Heater or washing machine would probably drain the system very quickly.

Also -cost/frequency of replacing batteries?

[I have enough fun running my holiday home on 3kW, paying out €12,600 plus €1,300 installation fee for less power seems an uneconomic proposal]

I don't think it would ever make sense for a holiday home as you'd never recoup the investment. This is a difficult calculation too as it assumes electricity prices stay static. Almost certainly they will go higher.

On the Italian documents the graph looks different (more sun I guess). It's peak is no higher but it is generating from sunrise to sunset with a steep curve to reach peak output. I guess if you were consuming 3kw then you would (during the day) consume 2kw from the panels and 1kw from the batteries so it shouldn't be limited to 2kw.

We never, ever trip the 3KW now as we've got used to it. I was saying to my OH today that instead of running the washing machine at night it would then make sense to run it during the day etc.

The batteries are stated as lasting for 5,000 charge cycles and the inverter is guaranteed for 5 years. The system is guaranteed for 10 years and the panels for 25.

I worked out on our current consumption we'd break even (assuming electricity prices stay the same) after 18 years so it's quite a long time. Mind you that's not the only reason to do it :-)

For me, there are too many moving parts which means it breaks, doesnt pack itself up, doesnt wake up and/or doesnt move.   And its big - too big for the Beni Culturali to allow it in many places.