Alernative power generation for mining.

[Elder III]

Solar just doesn't seem to be a great solution for 24/7 high power consumption.  I think it's intriguing for more "normal" household use where you don't need max power every hour of every day, but not as good for mid scale mining... not unless you move somewhere with 24 hours of sunlight. :p

[NiklasFalk]

Interesting note about DC to AC conversion loss in relation to mining...
What Mining equipment uses AC?
Stack up on 12V batteries and feed them with the solar panels (yes, batteries are not free or risk free etc...).

But it's all about scale. If you can buy the Hoover dam and use all of that power to mining, it's a little bigger than a 2Kw 12 GPU miner that can be driven by 4 persons on exercise bikes (pedaling like crazy).

A normal residential Solar roof have about 30 year lifetime and a 10 year ROI here in Scandinavia.
In a high tax situation you don't pay tax on self-generated power.
In the summer we have surplus die to 18-20 sunhours per day, so we can use some to drive more cooling fans
In the winter we need some of the heat so the bought in power is not that costly (and the solar give some as long as you remove the snow from the panels).

[remauto1187ma]

Interesting note about DC to AC conversion loss in relation to mining...
What Mining equipment uses AC?

Your Power Supplies plug into AC and are then converted to DC (Via Rectifiers) and voltage dividers lower the DC to the different DC voltage rails that are needed to power CPU, SATA, PCIE, etc. Aytime you convert ac to dc OR lower the voltage there is loss which is in the form of heat.  That is why you wont find a 100% Efficient Power Supply.

Stack up on 12V batteries and feed them with the solar panels (yes, batteries are not free or risk free etc...).

Not so fast.  There are Battery costs to take into account and then there is their life expectancy and needing replaced to make it even costlier.  Even Deep cycle batteries lose their life expectancy if cycled to less than half of their charge.  When that happens they will never be the same again.  Its all downhill from there.  Do you want to babysit your system all of the time?

A normal residential Solar roof have about 30 year lifetime and a 10 year ROI here in Scandinavia.
In a high tax situation you don't pay tax on self-generated power.
In the summer we have surplus die to 18-20 sunhours per day, so we can use some to drive more cooling fans
In the winter we need some of the heat so the bought in power is not that costly (and the solar give some as long as you remove the snow from the panels).

What about winter? Dont exactly have a surplus of light then now do you? Winter will cause your solar output to drop like a rock to near zero.

Would you buy 20K worth of GPU's on a 30yr loan?

[skablast]

This is something I know.
I am installing turnkey PV solution  & small mining farm .

Background: here (Italy) the Kw/h cost 0.23 to most of the people.
If you install PV system you got a 10 year tax deduction for 50 % of the value.
Cost of a 3 KW peak solution without the battery 5K €.
Cost of a 3 Kw peak solution with the lithium  battery for 5KWh, around 10K( that depends on how many hour/day you need)battery cost coming down 20% year.
You can sell Energy back to the grid at around 0.06 €

A 3KW(peak) system produce South oriented around 3800 kwh/ year.
Problem is when it produce the energy:
1 mining rig ATW absorb 1Kwh = 24 Kwh a day=8670 Kwh/year ,
So it seem  that with  7/8 Kw peak installed you can cover your mining rigs at around 100%.
You will need grid connection aniway because if it rain for a day or so.. and if its winter..

So, for 1 rig you need a battery system that can handle 12hour average and as mininum a 12 Kwh battery. Cost for a system ? lets say 26K euro.

Your normal cost for running 1 rig from the grid is 2000 €/year, and just mining Ethereum you will earn, at wtm calculation 2250€.
So, you are looking for a 13 year ROI ( escluding the mining system).
Tax deduction included is 7 year ROI( you will still have to receive some energy from the grid due to weather)

From the mining perspective I normally prepare a system that run CN7 during the night and Neoscrypt,Claymore Dual Keccak during the day because of the difference in power absorption.( you can optimize the timing it start better as some inverter give you by wifi realtime production info but its not worth for just 1 rig).

Who does it ?
A family with an house, with a regular job that can deduct the taxes.
A small company owner its the normal candidate. Cost of equipment can be deducted from the company, but earning in crypto  ( at least for now) are not subject to the taxation system. And are not even supposed to be reported if less than 50 BTC.
Some people not happy with the 2% you can earn from the eurobond
and
ME & my friend )

Kindly note, I haven't take my coffee yet, so calculation can be not so accurate.
 
If you need anything, just ask,its free, and I still have to thank you a lot of people for what I learned in this forum

[remauto1187ma]

Hell a 3kw solar system wont even power my rig #1 and #2 let alone Rig#3.