I’d love to recommend this article to my wife, but there are a couple of statements in it she’d laugh at, and I couldn’t blame her for reacting that way. (1) “The smartest, most rational experts in the world are coming to the same conclusion — the next 100 years are probably going to suck.” Saying there’s better than a 50/50 chance things will go south is an awfully strong statement to make with no citations of statements by or even names of the experts, and it’s completely unnecessary! Just say “there’s a good chance” instead of “probably”. (2) “But until now we’ve never dealt with new frontiers like self-aware machines that are infinitely more intelligent, connected, and capable than humans are.” I have a PhD in computer science, and I spent many years in industry doing AI and AI-related stuff. Yes, AI is amazing and it has great potential to do awful things as well as wonderful things. But that’s not because machines are “self-aware” or “more intelligent” (much less “infinitely” more) than people! Please read Melanie Mitchell’s New York Times article “Artificial Intelligence Hits the Barrier of Meaning” (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/05/opinion/artificial-intelligence-machine-learning.html).
John just sent me a followup: he found an article on how to use micro-inverters for off grid power generation! It’s here: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/micro-inverters-battery-backup-compatible/ . So I don’t know there’s any need for you to be in touch with him after all. That article comments “As is the case with non-micro inverter based systems, everything needs to be matched and configured properly but as one example, Enphase have a specific white paper on the issue.” That’s particularly interesting because my own micro inverters are from Enphase 🙂 .
I just got a long message from John, the engineer who built my aquaintance’s system. What he said in part is: “There isn’t really anything practical you can do with panels and micro-inverters. It is possible that one day someone like Tesla will be able to do it. Basically, you’d need to fool the micro-inverters that there is a grid running to push power to. “I just read your question to the author of the article again. The answer for him is to *not* use micro-inverters. Micro-inverters definitely have their place but not if you want off grid solar power available. From what I understand, the newer Tesla Powerwall systems will work with panels and allow off grid use.” He also said he could be wrong about the micro-inverters, and he’ll look around for more information. I don’t think I should quote John’s entire reply here, but I’d love to put you and him in touch. Could you send me your email address and I’ll try to do that? I assume you have access to mine via The Prepared to give me yours!
Will do. Someone in my town (Bloomington, Indiana) whom I know slightly told me he has his home set up that way, but he said it was put together by a brilliant but eccentric engineer friend, and implied no one else would be likely to be able to duplicate it! Oh — and he suggested that implementing it with per-panel microinverters would be less practical than with a single inverter for the whole array. Anyway, I assumed information on a technology that doesn’t require a brilliant (even if eccentric) engineer wouldn’t be hard to find, but I’m convinced now that’s not the case, so I’ll try to find out more. Thanks.
Excellent article, thank you; by far the most complete on the subject I’ve seen. Now here’s a question that’s been on my mind for years. My house has eight solar panels. That’s easily enough to power essential things like the refrigerator in case the grid goes down. However, the microinverters on each panel shut them off if there’s no 120V 60 Hz coming in from the electric company. I understand that’s to avoid electrocuting linemen who presumably will be working to restore power; but it also makes my panels useless just when I’d need them the most! What would it take to avoid that limitation? A bank of batteries, I’m sure, and some kind of switch to disconnect from the grid; but what else?