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After few experiments with solar mining (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=228677.msg3018936#msg3018936) on one Bitfury chip I decided to make full autonomous green mining facility.
It is custom built solar panel with 10 DirectCore™ powered Bitfury chips (no DC/DC converters, MPPT trackers, etc, just chips and a panel)  8)
You can see smaller panel (12V 35W) beneath for powering Raspberry Pi, which is connected to the pool via Wi-Fi adapter.

https://i.imgur.com/mkiwQMI.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/D3iv4n8.jpg

Actual hashrate depends on wheather conditions and ranges in 15-23GHps, hope we will reach sweet 30GHps with a good sun later.

You can follow our green hashrate graphs on http://eligius.st/~wizkid057/newstats/userstats.php/15YLSMUNxNZpWjjkego2fNJw78BgigZiiu

Nice work. Definitely following.

This has been tried so many times and its not viable. Unless you can move miners to places that already have panels, its impossible to ever ROI.

These chips have already paid for themselves in full. Now I don't want to spend power for mining, cooling, etc. Just want to get some free money  :D

My first solar driven chip (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=228677.msg3018936#msg3018936) started in the end of August 2013 mined 0.16299BTC.
Just one chip and four cheap solar cells from eBay.

How is it free money when you're paying more for the cells than you are for the chips?

And that chip didn't ROI, you mined ~$20 at those prices for the cost of the chip and solar cells.

if price solar cell less price may be will ROI

Great idea. Not to mention it can be easily customized to gain power for other purposes too.

Definetly a cool experiment, also if it will not make ROI

First few hours stats at moderate spring sun (Eligius stats are broken now). Almost no HW errors (unusual for bitfury chips).

https://i.imgur.com/FWNm4Ol.png

very nice project!

The angle of your solar panels is wrong they should be somewhere between (Summer bias)35-45(Winter bias) degrees.

Did you see the new Bitfury2 chips? 25% more hash and 25% less power. http://www.bitfurystrikesback.com/product/bitfury-55nm-rev2-samples/

Good luck with your project. I'm seriously thinking about a 4kWh grid tie solar to bring down my electricity costs. At 15p/25c kWh it starts to look economical.

It is a complete scam though, if it wasn't for central planners deciding the cost of electricity, solar wouldn't be viable in a free market!
I feel sorry for the poor sods without south facing roofs subsidizing those with them, it's not fair!

We have a lot of snow in winter, so this angle is the only way to get panels working without cleaning them every day from snow.
For summer I will increase an angle to 45 degrees (later).

Yes I heard about 2nd gen chips but not tested them yet. They look quite interesting, thanks.

Im a bit gob smacked at those saying No ROI. /me shakes head/ ROI is not an issue when your talking about things that can be used outside of mining. with Solar for example, if you stop mining you use it to generate power for your home of other device. There are inverters you can buy that just plug straight in to you Home 240v/110v Power Sockets and top up your home electricity. Say you dont stop mining, well then that's free power for however many years the panely lasts. most a guaranteed for 10 to 30 years. I will solarizing my Gridseeds ASAP. im trying to sort through all the pages of other peoples projects for clues. I have a little head start, years ago I brought a 200w Wind turbine I never got around to installing on a tower. I also live in Australia and we got a tonne of sunshine here, even in winter we are good for 6 hours full sun, another 4 hours partial. in summer its around 10 hours full sun. So I am confident Solar & wind for me will work well. Also if your an electronics enthusiast like myself its a great project and ROI is just not an issue.

Because you also have to ROI with the solar cell? They have relatively short, finite lifetimes and cost fiat upfront.