I have 75KW solar power available

[ajandersen]

I am new to these forums as well as new to BitCoin, though I've always followed the price.  My father has a farm with irrigation.  We received some grants to build a small solar farm to power the pivots.  However, because of water calls being made across the state, we find ourself with a brand new 85'x150' shed with a 75KW solar array on the roof with nothing to power.

It's not large enough to sell to the power company (in my state) for cash and I have nothing to net meter in this location (net metering gives us credits to offset consumption at that location).  Should I look at BitCoin mining?  This location is hooked to the grid so I could power the HW day and night.  I just don't know how to make use of this investment that we have made.

Any ideas?

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[dhenson]

I am new to these forums as well as new to BitCoin, though I've always followed the price.  My father has a farm with irrigation.  We received some grants to build a small solar farm to power the pivots.  However, because of water calls being made across the state, we find ourself with a brand new 85'x150' shed with a 75KW solar array on the roof with nothing to power.

It's not large enough to sell to the power company (in my state) for cash and I have nothing to net meter in this location (net metering gives us credits to offset consumption at that location).  Should I look at BitCoin mining?  This location is hooked to the grid so I could power the HW day and night.  I just don't know how to make use of this investment that we have made.

Any ideas?

You could sell hosting of bitcoin mining equipment for a $/kwh fee.  At maximum capacity, only charging .04/kwh you could make over $2000/month basically just leasing space.

You could realistically get twice that, and you wouldn't have to buy the mining equipment.

[lex_minutor]

First, where are you located? I would guess California (due to your comment about water issues).
That means you'll get good use out of the solar panels.
I'd measure how many kwh you get on average and then I would invest in equipment to use 1/2 of the total.
That way, you'll use net metering as your power storage basically for night time when the solar array output is 0.
Maybe start slow, in case there's going to be a new generation of miners coming out over the summer so don't get all the equipment at once.
Your other consideration should be ventilation since the number of miners you can run will heat up the shed.

A quick calculation (which may not be accurate, so correct me if I'm wrong):
I'll assume you can get 8 solid hours at 100%:
75KW * 8h = 600KWh
600KWh / 24 hours = 25KW
So I'd run 25KW of miners so that you can basically run them for free (using net metering during the night).
Then, assuming you're going to run at 80% capacity due to not overloading wires/circuits:
25KW * 80% = 20KW
That means you can run 30-33 S5's for 36-40 TH.
At the current difficulty that'll get you ~$2900/month.

[buysolar]

There is a cost to entry in terms of bitcoin mining equipment, Buying S1's, S2's, S3's and other low cost equipment that is being liquidated due to energy cost of running the equipment will be the cheapest entry point in the short term.
Typically in a net metered situation, the utility company will pay you the wholesale rate for the energy produced if you don't use it with in 12months of generating it. In NJ the wholesale rate is ~3.5cents/kwh. If your net metering gives 0 buy back for unused net metered energy... then you absolutely want to do something with the solar energy that is being wasted and bitcoin mining may be a good choice. If your net metering pays you wholesale for unused solar energy of 3.5cents/kwh then that's probably about $275 a month for your size system versus the ~$500 to $3k/month you would make mining at the current complexity and price of bitcoin.
I've been mining with solar energy for a few years now. I also have substantial experience in the solar space and have designed and installed many megawatts of grid tied and off grid solar systems. I currently have 60kw of solar online at my own site and will be bringing another 40kw of solar online over the next 6months.  Feel free to pm me if you're looking to have a team come out and set up a mining system for you.

[Rabinovitch]

PM sent.

[ajandersen]

Thanks for the suggestions.  It does seem like bitcoin could be a good investment to make with the solar project.... I think I'll look into this a bit more.  I hadn't even considered leasing out the facility to other bitcoin users.  That sounds intriguing and would remove a lot of the complexity.  How difficult is it to find people wanting to rent space?

Also, what kind of bandwidth would I need.  We have fiber nearby with 100MB connection.  With that large of an array, would I need more bandwidth than this?

[notlist3d]

Thanks for the suggestions.  It does seem like bitcoin could be a good investment to make with the solar project.... I think I'll look into this a bit more.  I hadn't even considered leasing out the facility to other bitcoin users.  That sounds intriguing and would remove a lot of the complexity.  How difficult is it to find people wanting to rent space?

Also, what kind of bandwidth would I need.  We have fiber nearby with 100MB connection.  With that large of an array, would I need more bandwidth than this?

Internet not very much.  More important that it's consistent and does not drop connections.

You would need to do a decent amount of modification as far as cooling for 75kw of gear.   

As far as finding people that would depend on how much you charged per kw. 

Can you show any pictures?  Seems like you would have a lot of them of the solar part at least. 

[alh]

Putting aside the solar, what is your power cost for a "cloudy day"? If that's more than about $.10 USD/KWh, then you need to rethink this project. Obviously there will be times when you consume more power than you deliver, and if that's too much you'll be on the losing side. Somebody suggested that you are in California, which isn't know for it's low electricity rates. Is "net metering" done over a month or what? Does it work to "spin the meter backwards" for short periods of time (e.g. daytime), and run it "forwards" at night or on a cloudy day?

You also need to consider the environmentals of you building.  Most mining gear won't operate well if it's say 90F inside for very long (e.g. hours).

Interesting idea though!

[Amph]

isn't better to you for selling your electricity? not the solar pannels itself, but the electricity that this thing produce

i heard that it is very remunerative, if you sell abroad, to some small company

[notlist3d]

isn't better to you for selling your electricity? not the solar pannels itself, but the electricity that this thing produce

i heard that it is very remunerative, if you sell abroad, to some small company

OP said they were to small... 75 KW sounds like more then enough for most but they said not

It's not large enough to sell to the power company (in my state) for cash

Part of reason I asked for picture of solar panel setup is i think decent chance OP is a troll.

For building all of this and not being able to get water just is odd (It could be true).  But traditionally you would only invest in serious irrigation if you had a nice well or waterway or something that guarantees water.  If they used traditional ways to get water price is rediclous.

[jonnybravo0311]

Even with 75 kW you would think OP could sell it back to the power company since he's already hooked up to the grid.  I suppose it's possible the power company produces such a surplus of energy that they just don't want to buy... but I can't imagine they wouldn't be selling any surplus off to other regions.  Maybe it's more accurate that the OP just doesn't want to sell because of the rates the power company buys it... but that doesn't fit either since original plan for this power was to drive some irrigation equipment, so any profit made from selling would be more than they were planning to get.

So, either it's a troll or OP didn't do a very good job explaining his situation

If this is real OP, and assuming you're converting into AC from those cells, make sure you convert into 208/220/240V and not 110/120V.  Miners will thank you.

[notlist3d]

Even with 75 kW you would think OP could sell it back to the power company since he's already hooked up to the grid.  I suppose it's possible the power company produces such a surplus of energy that they just don't want to buy... but I can't imagine they wouldn't be selling any surplus off to other regions.  Maybe it's more accurate that the OP just doesn't want to sell because of the rates the power company buys it... but that doesn't fit either since original plan for this power was to drive some irrigation equipment, so any profit made from selling would be more than they were planning to get.

So, either it's a troll or OP didn't do a very good job explaining his situation

If this is real OP, and assuming you're converting into AC from those cells, make sure you convert into 208/220/240V and not 110/120V.  Miners will thank you.

It's more and more troll as I think about it.   Irrigation uses a lot of water.   But electricity..... much less.  I cannot imagine a irrigation system taking 75KW to run.  And again the fact OP say's they built this and cannot get water.  These things are planned out on all parts.

Unless OP comes with pic of solar, which he should have if he has one.  I go with troll.

[ajandersen]

Let me explain the setup in more detail.  I am in Idaho and their electricity rates start at about 8 cents and go up based on the amount of electricity used. So the first block of KWH is 8 cents, the next block is 9 cents, etc.  They support net metering for homes and businesses with a solar setup under 100KW. Net metering will never make a payout to the generating person.  It will simply build up electricity credits that, at this time, never expire until they are used.  They cannot, however, be transferred to a different account.

If it is over 100KW, then they off a commercial buyback of the electricity.  The rates they offer for this are very low 1-2 cents and you have to contract for providing the electricity.  If your system goes down for a week or two or there are to many cloudy days, then you need to pay the electric company for the delta that you did not deliver.  Regardless, I'm too small for this option but it doesn't seem to payout enough even if I wasn't.  I'd also have to increase my solar size by 25%.

Regarding the water call, I live in Idaho and ground water users are making a water call on the well water users saying that our pumping affects their surface water volume.  There has been very little snowpack the last couple of winters in the mountains and means troubling times for surface water irrigators. We didn't know that this would affect us as we have terrific amounts of ground water in my region.

My 85x150 shed is a brand new heavy duty metal building.  However, it was not meant to house servers.  To this end, it does not have sides on the building or concrete on the floor.  It just has compacted gravel.  Depending on the amount of space the bit coin hardware would take, I may consider putting sides on the building as well as concrete.  I'm guessing, though, that I wouldn't need near that much space to hold the hardware.  I may be cheaper to put up a small building for the purpose of housing the bitcoin hardware.  

Any idea on how much space the hardware would take that would consume the solar provided by the array?  The solar generates 480v but has a transformer just for the shed at 240 (shed has lights and some electric outlets).

[notlist3d]

Let me explain the setup in more detail.  I am in Idaho and their electricity rates start at about 8 cents and go up based on the amount of electricity used. So the first block of KWH is 8 cents, the next block is 9 cents, etc.  They support net metering for homes and businesses with a solar setup under 100KW. Net metering will never make a payout to the generating person.  It will simply build up electricity credits that, at this time, never expire until they are used.  They cannot, however, be transferred to a different account.

If it is over 100KW, then they off a commercial buyback of the electricity.  The rates they offer for this are very low 1-2 cents and you have to contract for providing the electricity.  If your system goes down for a week or two or there are to many cloudy days, then you need to pay the electric company for the delta that you did not deliver.  Regardless, I'm too small for this option but it doesn't seem to payout enough even if I wasn't.  I'd also have to increase my solar size by 25%.

Regarding the water call, I live in Idaho and ground water users are making a water call on the well water users saying that our pumping affects their surface water volume.  There has been very little snowpack the last couple of winters in the mountains and means troubling times for surface water irrigators. We didn't know that this would affect us as we have terrific amounts of ground water in my region.

My 85x150 shed is a brand new heavy duty metal building.  However, it was not meant to house servers.  To this end, it does not have sides on the building or concrete on the floor.  It just has compacted gravel.  Depending on the amount of space the bit coin hardware would take, I may consider putting sides on the building as well as concrete.  I'm guessing, though, that I wouldn't need near that much space to hold the hardware.  I may be cheaper to put up a small building for the purpose of housing the bitcoin hardware.  

Any idea on how much space the hardware would take that would consume the solar provided by the array?  The solar generates 480v but has a transformer just for the shed at 240 (shed has lights and some electric outlets).

Why would you build a irigation system on a place without a solid water source?  If true you would be insane.   Most do all kinds of projections and serious looking into before even getting a system.   And what kind of motors are you using on your system that take near 75 KW?

Are you able to show a picture of the solar workings?  This would make me believe.   Talk just makes me think high chance of troll on this.

[ajandersen]

Unfortunately, there was little that one could do to forecast the water situation.  We've been pumping water for decades at this location and there is no shortage of groudwater in our area.  Historically, Idaho has not allowed surface water users to make a water call on ground water users.  Times have changed, though.

The electric pump is 40HP and runs about 6 months out of the year.

I don't have pics now (this is at Dad's farm).  However, I can send you the solar project paperwork via a PM.  I'd rather not publish it on this public forum for all to see as it does have phone numbers, etc.  The bid was originally for 100KW (that is what this document has written up) and we reduced it to 75KW based on cost.  He modified the bill but these in-depth projections are still based on the 100KW.

[jonnybravo0311]

Let me explain the setup in more detail.  I am in Idaho and their electricity rates start at about 8 cents and go up based on the amount of electricity used. So the first block of KWH is 8 cents, the next block is 9 cents, etc.  They support net metering for homes and businesses with a solar setup under 100KW. Net metering will never make a payout to the generating person.  It will simply build up electricity credits that, at this time, never expire until they are used.  They cannot, however, be transferred to a different account.

If it is over 100KW, then they off a commercial buyback of the electricity.  The rates they offer for this are very low 1-2 cents and you have to contract for providing the electricity.  If your system goes down for a week or two or there are to many cloudy days, then you need to pay the electric company for the delta that you did not deliver.  Regardless, I'm too small for this option but it doesn't seem to payout enough even if I wasn't.  I'd also have to increase my solar size by 25%.

Regarding the water call, I live in Idaho and ground water users are making a water call on the well water users saying that our pumping affects their surface water volume.  There has been very little snowpack the last couple of winters in the mountains and means troubling times for surface water irrigators. We didn't know that this would affect us as we have terrific amounts of ground water in my region.

My 85x150 shed is a brand new heavy duty metal building.  However, it was not meant to house servers.  To this end, it does not have sides on the building or concrete on the floor.  It just has compacted gravel.  Depending on the amount of space the bit coin hardware would take, I may consider putting sides on the building as well as concrete.  I'm guessing, though, that I wouldn't need near that much space to hold the hardware.  I may be cheaper to put up a small building for the purpose of housing the bitcoin hardware.  

Any idea on how much space the hardware would take that would consume the solar provided by the array?  The solar generates 480v but has a transformer just for the shed at 240 (shed has lights and some electric outlets).

Thanks for the explanation... and I learned something .  If I read what you wrote properly, the power company provides you with credits that never expire... so that seems to me sort of like they're buying your power, right?  Couldn't you shut down your 75 kW generation and use the credits it made to pay for the power your operation consumes from the grid?

Anyway... your primary concern for the miner space should be airflow.  If you're going to utilize the entire 75 kW, that's 75 kW of heat you're going to have to dissipate.

How high does the grid power run?  You mention it's in blocks... how many blocks do you get at $0.08... $0.09... $0.10... etc?  Remember, if you do set this up for mining, it's 24/7.  So nights and cloudy days you're going to be pulling 75 kW from the grid.

Assuming absolute best case scenario here at current network difficulty, and you can fill your space with SP35s.  You'll get 110TH/s for 73 kW of power.  That's $8140 a month.  Realize these numbers are based on today and you using all of that available power exclusively for mining hardware.

[ajandersen]

Rates are as follows:

Sept-May
Tier 1   Tier 2     Tier 3
Kilowatt-hours (kWh)   0-800   801-2,000   Over 2,000
Rate(cents per kWh)   7.97 ¢   8.78 ¢   9.73 ¢

------

June-Aug
Kilowatt-hours (kWh)   0-800   801-2,000   Over 2,000
Rate (cents per kWh)   8.57 ¢   10.31 ¢     12.25 ¢

I probably would try to only use half of the 75KW (to account for the night time) so as to not have to pay the electric company anything.

[aurel57]

From what I read I think you can finish a area inside your shed to house some miners. I think what I would get enough to use half of your electric on mining and get credit from the electric company for other half. Then you can use your credit at night or during shorter hour days in the winter.

Edit: I see you posted that this is what you where thinking.

[notlist3d]

Rates are as follows:

Sept-May
Tier 1   Tier 2     Tier 3
Kilowatt-hours (kWh)   0-800   801-2,000   Over 2,000
Rate(cents per kWh)   7.97 ¢   8.78 ¢   9.73 ¢

------

June-Aug
Kilowatt-hours (kWh)   0-800   801-2,000   Over 2,000
Rate (cents per kWh)   8.57 ¢   10.31 ¢     12.25 ¢

I probably would try to only use half of the 75KW (to account for the night time) so as to not have to pay the electric company anything.

The 12 cent will kill profits especially once you add cooling, etc.  So the idea of stocking up for night is good, if you are able to use half during day and get credit during night you will have a better profit margin by far.

[judypug1956]

don't rent the space.  mine on your own.  buy used s-3's  75 to 85 usd each. even less.

buy server psu's that run on 240 volts.

there are psu's sold on site for under 200 that will give 2880 watts that is 6  s-3's


so if you buy 6  s-3's for  500 usd and 1 psu for 200  you are out 700usd    oh 1 16 port switch and a router

you can mine 3000gh.  and jump to 6000gh for 700 more .

I can run 12 s-3's in a garage you can run 12 in a big shed easy.

you can see if you want a bigger expansion without betting your left nut so to speak.

6 s-3's + psu =   2400 watts  700 cash and 200 more for cables router and a switch
12 s-3's + psu = 4800 watts  700 cash  and you will not need more cables router or switch

first money up 900 usd next set of money = 700 usd

[crazyivan]

I am new to these forums as well as new to BitCoin, though I've always followed the price.  My father has a farm with irrigation.  We received some grants to build a small solar farm to power the pivots.  However, because of water calls being made across the state, we find ourself with a brand new 85'x150' shed with a 75KW solar array on the roof with nothing to power.

It's not large enough to sell to the power company (in my state) for cash and I have nothing to net meter in this location (net metering gives us credits to offset consumption at that location).  Should I look at BitCoin mining?  This location is hooked to the grid so I could power the HW day and night.  I just don't know how to make use of this investment that we have made.

Any ideas?

I would say you ve got yourself a nice farm to build.

[philipma1957]

I am new to these forums as well as new to BitCoin, though I've always followed the price.  My father has a farm with irrigation.  We received some grants to build a small solar farm to power the pivots.  However, because of water calls being made across the state, we find ourself with a brand new 85'x150' shed with a 75KW solar array on the roof with nothing to power.

It's not large enough to sell to the power company (in my state) for cash and I have nothing to net meter in this location (net metering gives us credits to offset consumption at that location).  Should I look at BitCoin mining?  This location is hooked to the grid so I could power the HW day and night.  I just don't know how to make use of this investment that we have made.

Any ideas?

I would say you ve got yourself a nice farm to build.

yep he can do it in stages like judypug1956 said.

the s-3's are studs.  once he gets used to seeing how to run them he can decide if making a 50-100 unit farm is what he want to do.
here is a link for a 16 port switch.

http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-ProSAFE-16-Port-Ethernet-Desktop/dp/B000063UZW/ref=sr_1_1?

simple router like this

http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Router-External-Antennas-WNR2020v2/dp/B00MRVJYEI/ref=sr_1_9?

and cat6 cable

http://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters%C2%AE-5-Color-Snagless-Ethernet/dp/B00E5I7XC6/ref=sr_1_3?

the switch = 58
the router = 32
the cables = 48 for 15

that comes to 138   and you can run about 14 units.

[ajandersen]

Wow, you guys are a ton of help! I may purchase a very small system to try out at home first just to figure out what I am doing.  I'm embarrassed to say that as much as I read about bitcoins, the mining part doesn't sound simple and sort of eludes me.  I'm guessing that if I jumped right in with a small setup and learned the ropes a bit then I'd feel more confident building up a farm.

[philipma1957]

Wow, you guys are a ton of help! I may purchase a very small system to try out at home first just to figure out what I am doing.  I'm embarrassed to say that as much as I read about bitcoins, the mining part doesn't sound simple and sort of eludes me.  I'm guessing that if I jumped right in with a small setup and learned the ropes a bit then I'd feel more confident building up a farm.

s-3's are nice they have been around since July of 2014 they work.  you only need a decent internet connection. no pc's are needed.

they run on their own hooked up to a switch then a router

worker's 1 and 2 have been working since July  2014

[notlist3d]

Wow, you guys are a ton of help! I may purchase a very small system to try out at home first just to figure out what I am doing.  I'm embarrassed to say that as much as I read about bitcoins, the mining part doesn't sound simple and sort of eludes me.  I'm guessing that if I jumped right in with a small setup and learned the ropes a bit then I'd feel more confident building up a farm.

s-3's are nice they have been around since July of 2014 they work.  you only need a decent internet connection. no pc's are needed.

they run on their own.

And there are a LOT of them for resell.  So if cheap electricity such as this some can pull a nice profit from them.

It's true they are like tank's on running.   I never had a issue with the ones I had.

[ajandersen]

I think I'll get one or two S3's to try to get familiar with Bitcoin.  When you say to buy them used, do you find them on ebay or is there a more popular source out there?  I don't see a classifieds section on these boards.

[notlist3d]

I think I'll get one or two S3's to try to get familiar with Bitcoin.  When you say to buy them used, do you find them on ebay or is there a more popular source out there?  I don't see a classifieds section on these boards.

If you have a "big" town it's possibe craigslist or something like it.  But by far ebay is most common. There is also a board on this site to buying hardware.

One suggestion is use a decent power supply.  If you get a very cheap PSU it's asking for problems, and efficient is good I personally like gold or better. 

[lex_minutor]

I was going to say look into SRECs (Solar Renewable Energy Credits).
You get SRECs on the amount of energy you generate, don't remember what the factor was, but I think 1000kwh = 1srec
Then you could sell those on the market. It doesn't matter what you did with the power, it's just credits because you generated renewable electricity.
But Idaho doesn't do SRECs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Renewable_Energy_Certificate)

[ajandersen]

I just purchased an antminer S3 and a power supply on eBay to get my feet wet (http://www.ebay.com/itm/141670019553).  I think in a month or so I may purchase quite a few bitminer machines to take advantage of the power supply.

I'm thinking of waiting for the S6 as it sounds like there are rumors that it will be like the S4 and have the power supply built right in.

[philipma1957]

I just purchased an antminer S3 and a power supply on eBay to get my feet wet (http://www.ebay.com/itm/141670019553).  I think in a month or so I may purchase quite a few bitminer machines to take advantage of the power supply.

I'm thinking of waiting for the S6 as it sounds like there are rumors that it will be like the S4 and have the power supply built right in.

let us know once you set it up.

also feel free to ask for help.

that psu can do 1 s-3 pretty easy.

it may not do 2 very well.

the price you paid is okay.

[ajandersen]

With that much space, do you think I could install 40KW worth of Antminer S5's w/o having to worry about a cooling system?  SE Idaho isn't that hot of a place (mid 90's in July, but cooler the rest of the year).

[philipma1957]

With that much space, do you think I could install 40KW worth of Antminer S5's w/o having to worry about a cooling system?  SE Idaho isn't that hot of a place (mid 90's in July, but cooler the rest of the year).

40kw = 40 x 4000 btu = 160,000 btu  


 my ac is 25000 btu and will drop  a 2000 square  foot home 10f  in  10 hours  say 82 to 72 f

so your 160000 btu of heat   would jump a  14000 square foot space 10f     say 82 f to 92 f


  I think you need two big fans  like these

http://www.lowes.com/pd_416730-11292-SFDC2-600T_1z11on0__?productId=4755305&pl=1&Ntt=fans


1 brings air in 1 brings air out  




               shed  150 ft  long
     ____________________________________________
     l                                                                              l
     l                                                                              l
     door or window                                                         l
     F>may need a fan here?     push-fan>>>Miners>>>pull-fan>> window door
     l                                                                              l
     l                                                                              l
     l___________________________________________l
  
 the push fan  and the pull    could be moved around for best spots