Going Solar

aMonda' I mentioned in passing The Works. Long ago, long enough for me to forget all about it, The Blob reports that I had a medium-deep dive into the economics and logistics of installing Solar panel in 2019. We could have gone for it, but the pay-back time seemed long and other distracting things were going on . . . not to mention Coronarama. I'm glad we didn't go solar solo in 2019 because we are now part of a Community Solar Electric Initiative. - hooked by a series of talks in the Village Hall in November 2023. By throwing our lot (and loot) in with the neighbours we get a) a bitty bulk discount b) a huge amount of expertise and support. What happened to Solar2024?? There are government grants for installing Solar and that incentive has driven a market demand for domestic installations [the tumbling price of solar panels helps too). Lots of entrepreneurs  have been asking "How hard can this be? If I sell systems and installations, I can subcontract all the digging, sawing, drilling, cable-laying, and connecting. and add 30% for myself". Entrepreneurs are, by definition, great for the sales pitch but are not all equivalent on communications, costings, timelines, reliability. The Result [a working system for sensible money] is important, but nobody wants to be chewing their beard or losing sleep over the Process . . . with unreturned phone-calls, missed deadlines inconsistent comms.

Eventually we finished up dealing with Eco Horizon from Mountrath who aren't just a glossy website. Solar panels are 1760mm x 1130mm and the DC to AC 'inverter' has a max capacity of 18 panels - or rather the Watts that will be generated by 18 panels in Ireland in Summer. It would be a false economy to skimp on a few panels because the main cost is the labour of installation. in ~2007 we acquired a polytunnel and decided to construct it in the flattest part of the haggard near the house. The alternative flat areas being too far away to be convenient for an asset used daily.  There was room on the same flat shelf to install the panels and their supporting frame.  But first I had to salvage some blocks.

The site was flat for some definitions of flat but was still pocked with hazards: an experimental frog-pond from 1998, some raised beds from 2008, a quince-tree from 2014; and a ragged-arsed dry stone wall from 1898 needed to be tidied up. I had already cut down the trees directly between the sun and the panels. This is the Before Kubota Minidigger BKM picture:

The grey edge to the L is the polytunnel with the strawberry bed in front. South is to the Right.

A few hours of Tonka-toy scooping and filling and pushing cleared off a rectangle of really level bare earth. Eco Horizon prefers to set the panels at 15° to the horizontal rather than 45°. This suits me because there is less windage in the flatter system. They also maintain that 4 x 250kg concrete blocks is enough ballast / foundation given that we aren't [yet!] in tornado country. Here's one foundation with its frame:

They invest in ½ tonne of 804 roadstone for each block because that will solidify with a splash of rain without sinking. 804 has a uniform consistency which allows one man with a minidigger and one man with a shovel to tip and tweak the blocks in 3-dimensions until they are all in line and the right distance apart. Then it is a matter of clipping on the panels and wiring those babies up [with Goran for scale]:

Minidiggers are heavy and are designed to work in muddy wet building sites, but they churn as they turn and you can see where they have been. But the mess is as nothing compared to what would have happened if we'd suffered a normal wet Irish Spring: so we count our blessings.

Monday, a team of four came from Eco Horizon because the cables [electric + data] from the solar array to the fusebox in the house had to be dug in and buried. The route was a 3-D zig-zag: only a short part of which could be handled by the digger-bucket. And (sorry lads) the fine weather broke and they started to shovel in the not-quite drizzle known here as a grand soft day. We are still due another day's work where the company electrician makes connexions and the last bits of kit, controls and wires are installed.

the company electrician? Eco Horizon employ all their Effectives directly: minidiggerers; scaffolders; pick&shovellers; fitters; labourers; tree sugeons; tilers. As our on-site EcoHoz gaffer confided [paraphrase] "you're at nothing with local sub-contractors: they've never done a solar install before, they don't adhere to our standards, they think they know better, so we have to do it all again after we've paid them off".  With an in-house crew, the company can play everyone to their strengths and compensate for their foibles. And everyone gets a chance to [by necessity has to] wield the Kubota, angle-grinder, screwdriver, Kango hammer, impact drill and pick-axe so there is a good bit of learning by doing.