DIY ESS - Solar & Energy Storage under Grey Sky ...

We always see pictures and videos of Solar panels under a great sunshine, but to tell the truth, it is not always like this ...

Here are Energy Monitors, Graphs, Pictures and Video of the bare reality of what happens when the sun is hiding

Sometimes the solar generation is rather low - with my 1000W solar install - but still something is coming out of it steadily during the day; Now fall is here, sun starts producing around 9AM instead of 7AM, but around 200-250W all day long when the sky is grey

Fo rnow, no heating is required yet, and the ESS I built is doing the job: Capturing any excess/surplus of power into the Battery pack for later use and always keep the Net Usage (= Usage - Generation) as close to 0W as possible

Whenever a washing machine water heating cycle comes on, the ESS stops charging the Battery pack and uses the Energy saved in it to push it back into our home grid, reducing the usage from the utility company. It is really a Peak Shaving device  

As you can see, the ESS keeps the Net Usage around 0W; That's the yellow line on these graphs

Here we can see that the early morning consumption is not covered by the ESS anymore like it used to be during summer : The Battery pack voltage is too low and no Power will be drawn from it until it reaches a certain level with Solar; Also, at night, the sun setting earlier, I often see the SMA inverter quit around 6PM now especially when grey, and the ESS quicks in right away to supply all the household Power for lights, TV, computer, etc ... until the Battery is back to low and the ESS then quits too - If sunny the whole evening usage can usually be covered - 

When Power is required, the ESS switches from Charge Mode to Grid Tie Inverter Mode to help supply this additional Watts to our home

This video shows an example of power pushed by the ESS into our home while cooking lunch

As we go deeper into fall and heating will soon be on during the day, I think I will use the Forced Charge Mode on the ESS to start charging during off peak hours (TOU), at night, and start the day with a Fully charged Battery pack, ready to crush it !  :-)

SMA Sunny Boy 240-US Micro Inverter - How to Install

Ben Castillo from SMA America takes us through the easy installation process of the New SMA Sunny Boy 240-US Micro Inverter



"The Solar Academy demonstrates the simple installation of the Sunny Boy 240-US micro inverter and the innovative Multigate XT communications solution."

Dick Smith wrong on Energy Costs - Renewables are Cheapest

"The only thing stopping an even faster rush for rooftop solar installs on domestic residences are discriminatory policies which prevent householders subject to a previous feed-in-tariff schemes from upgrading and adding more panels to their systems, and utilities that unreasonably limit the size of new systems"

Dick Smith has got the relative costs of fossil fuels, nuclear energy and renewable power all mixed up in his latest polemic, “Ten Bucks A Litre.”

I am from Energy security think-tank Zero Emissions and I wrote the Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan which is briefly showcased during the film.

The stationary energy plan, the first of its kind to show that Australia could run on 100% renewable energy a combination of wind power, rooftop solar photovoltaic, and solar thermal with storage (featured in the film), along with a huge “mining” effort to find energy efficiency in housing, commerce and industry. It was a landmark that helped caused the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), the organisation that runs Australia’s electricity supply, to write and publish this year its own plan and validate much of our work.

Whether you care about climate change or not, we’re moving rapidly away from coal because domestic and international banks, including the World Bank, will no longer invest in coal fired power. And a shift to gas would involve the burning of coal seam gas, due to a massive upswing in demand in Asia especially Japan the cost of gas here is becoming prohibitive.

The anticipated three-fold increase in the cost of gas (once we’re linked to international markets) means that wind power is now already the cheapest source of new energy capacity. And it is also cheaper for householders to generate their own power during the day from rooftop solar than to buy it through the meter from the big power companies. The only thing stopping an even faster rush for rooftop solar installs on domestic residences are discriminatory policies which prevent householders subject to a previous feed-in-tariff schemes from upgrading and adding more panels to their systems, and utilities that unreasonably limit the size of new systems.

The cost of gas being is being driven by the building of LNG export terminals in Queensland. Once we have a sizable link through these processing and port facilities to send gas including coal seam gas and shale out to the world’s markets, the gas market will mirror the oil market and always react to world pricing signals. We will never go back to having a sheltered market with gas as a cheap source of energy. What has really driven this international price up is the Nuclear disaster at Fukushima.


The Fukushima nuclear disaster two years back closed down a massive industrial manufacturing area for good, causing the abandonment of billions of dollars of factories and their robotic tooling and other plant. The cleanup bill is estimated at $60-70 billion and the country only has two out of 54 nuclear reactors operating. What’s more, it turns out that the two reactors that are operating were built atop a major earthquake fault line. So it is quite likely that they will be shut down in September, leaving Japan with no nuclear power plants at all.

Nuclear is the most expensive option when you take into account the external factors, followed by coal and coal seam gas. These external factors include devastating effects on health, agricultural output, land degradation, acid rain and the ability for us to feed ourselves, and of course in the case of the fossil fuels, climate change.

Already, in India and China renewables are either the cheapest form of new generation, wind is beating fossil fuels in Brazil and elsewhere. Even in Australia, wind and solar are considered the cheapest option for new capacity. Further price reductions are all about economies of scale, and economies of scale is what India and China have a lot of. Only renewable energy’s flagship technologies of wind power, rooftop solar and solar thermal with storage have small footprints and superior environmental performance, with innovation improving this all the time.

Dick Smith needs to revise his conclusion. If we want cheap power for the 21st century we need to invest much more in renewables, if we want to flounder, get sick and risk our economies then nuclear and fossil fuels will do the trick.

I look forward to a series of town hall debates with Dick Smith on the right way to a renewable future for Australia.


Source: Renew Economy

Uni-Solar PVL & SMA Sunny Boy - Home Solar Install Finished & Running :-)

My solar contractor, Ecogelec's boss, came today, sunday, before lunch time, to replace the defective SMA Sunny Boy 3000 Grid Tie Inverter by a brand new one, sent by SMA Technical Service few days before

After installing the new unit on its rack, replacing the MC4 connectors with Phoenix Contact ones, because this is what SMA is using now, it initialized with all the 3 LEDs on along with the 2 lines display, and performed well right away pushing between 8 and 900W for our first solar production :-)

From that moment, everything worked fine, I switched on my Energy Storage System (ESS) and it started charging as it should do when used power is lower than produced power, and it went on until close to 9:15 PM when the Sunny Boy stopped because of the sunset light becoming too weak ...

MC4 connectors had to be replaced by Phoenix Contact connectors


Phoenix Contact close up, no crimping tool required

We used a mirror to see the SMA Sunny Boy 3000 display

First Solar Production !! :-) and not bad at 850W

SMA Sunny Boy 3000 is on, completely silent,  and its top heat sink was luke warm the whole afternoon

I found a spot for Wattson transmitter: right on top of the utility meter
The Solar sub panel is now closed and Wattson sensor leads are coming out of it from the top


Then this board was put back in place and the kitchen cabinet can now be used almost like before, except for the upper storage part of course


The consumer unit is also closed now, after adding an outlet for Wattson transmitter

My ESS is on, in charger mode here, and the chargers are switched on to match the generation as close as possible
Production on the left, Net Usage (Usage - Production) on the right

Staying around 0W ... this is good

Production on the left, Net Usage (Usage - Production) on the right
Here the solar panel are pushing around 800W and the ESS - in GTI Mode at this moment - is pushing 570W, during cooking

And finally during sunset, the Generated Power declined slowly but stayed around 150 for a while at the end, still at 9PM,  - Here Wattson is set to indicate Generated Power -

This is the light I add at this moment around 9PM


until the SMA really quit around 9:15PM, Wattson indicating 0W



Wattson Anywhere power graphs for this first day of solar generation

Solar Install continues ....

Last saturday, my contractor came to continue the Solar install started tuesday morning

Close up on the DC Breaker : 600V 20A

Wattson with EasyFit configuration photographed before unplugging the transmitter

and Easy Fit fitted back in the solar sub panel ( a bigger one here) on the Line wire going back the the main consumer panel

More wiring

Closer look at the solar sub panel and Wattson


Wattson Transmitter is temporarily plugged in and placed here

My consumer unit: See the Wattson Usage sensor is located on the Main Line wire, providing power to the whole apartment; Because the solar sub panel is wired after this, I need to use Easy Fit Y-cable

After going back on the roff the link all the Uni-Solar PVLs together as one string, DC voltage of this big string was then around 360V and the sun was not even shining because of the big white clouds

Now, after closing the SMA Sunny Boy cover panel and wiring it to earth, after switching on the DC and AC breakers, the inverter 3 LEDs blinked for one second, and then nothing ... No display, no LEDs, nothing was on ... :-( and after trying everything my contractor quickly determined that there was probably a problem with this unit ... No Luck


As my contractor advised, on sunday, in the morning sun, I measured again the DC voltage and it was showing 390V; I then tried to start the inverter gain, but still nothing ...

I also read the Sunny Boy 3000 documentation trying to find an explanation in the minimum DC voltage required and in the troubleshooting section

Later on, Mark Elliott from Energeno, Wattson maker, retweeted this pic of Wattson sensors install, with a little comment