An honest answer on mining with solar

[Daltonik]

Well, judging by what can be found according to the data on the market in Nigeria of components for creating kits based on solar panels, then for example a kit consisting of a 5kVA inverter +4 batteries with a capacity of 200Ah + 8 solar panels of 250W there costs 1,450,000 naira or $3,152, if you take into account the average salary in Nigeria of $170, then this is an impressive amount.

If of course you can trust this site on the review price for Nigeria https://nigerianprice.com/solar-panel-prices-in-nigeria/

 

[gunhell16]

This is just my personal opinion, using a solar panel in whatever you use it for, I think it will reduce your electricity consumption somehow. In short, if you use it to mine bitcoin or crypto, I think it will reduce its kWh once you start mining.

Although we know that it is quite expensive to do bitcoin mining, I just have no idea if it will be okay in the country of Nigeria, based on what I know it is very hot there,.. hopefully, solar will help panels in that situation, here in the country I belong to is okay.

[TalkativeCoin]

For me, personally, it's a battle with time. The sooner you start, the better for you in terms of return of the invesmnt, I would even go to say "no matter the cost".

[stompix]

This is just my personal opinion, using a solar panel in whatever you use it for, I think it will reduce your electricity consumption somehow. In short, if you use it to mine bitcoin or crypto, I think it will reduce its kWh once you start mining.

Solar panels produce electricity, but they don't reduce consumption!
A miner that is rated 3000W will consume 3kwh an hour no matter what you sue to feed it, solar panels, wind farms, diesel generators, or the grid.

I wish people would stop seeing this as a magic solution, it works for a normal house when you have limited consumption during the night when the sun isn't producing s*** and most of the activities during the day, but with mining is a 24/7 thing, you need batteries and you need a ton of them and you drain them each day killing them faster than anything, ever faster than electric cars. So no, not something magical but something with a ton of costs, unreliable, and without government subsidies just a waste of money in most cases.

OP I am from Nigeria and I am using solar power for my asic miner, solar panels are not that costly anymore unlike a few years back, I started with 6 250 watt solar panels then increase the number as I add more miners including gpu miners, today I can boldly say that it's worth the investment, just make sure you go with a big inverter since you won't be buying twice and keep adding panels bit by bit, before you know it you will have massive power available through Sun energy.

So why not a cost breakdown?
6x250W panels won't be able to feed more than one s9 even at the full sun, so you will need roughly three times more in battery storage, that's 20KWh in batteries at least.
I'm really curious, how about a simulation of running an S19 at 3000W (let's simplify this) the investment and the returns?

[Easteregg69]

Someone ask this question on Nigerians local board, the reason why miners are not located or negligibly located in Nigeria as a result of poor electricity supply. In Nigeria, electricity supply is poor in many areas and the only option anyone that want to mine can have is to use solar energy.

Assuming you get yourself like one or two Antminer S19 Pro, powering it with solar, will it be profitable after considering the budget and maintenance?

Those miners and solar panels are not manufactured in Nigeria, they are probably manufactured in China which will make them costly as they will be shipped.

If it shows they have extraordinary skills and you want in on it then think you should try.

I would send them a water purifier for the farm. After been doing charity. The China merchandise is easily sold.

[philipma1957]

Well, judging by what can be found according to the data on the market in Nigeria of components for creating kits based on solar panels, then for example a kit consisting of a 5kVA inverter +4 batteries with a capacity of 200Ah + 8 solar panels of 250W there costs 1,450,000 naira or $3,152, if you take into account the average salary in Nigeria of $170, then this is an impressive amount.

If of course you can trust this site on the review price for Nigeria https://nigerianprice.com/solar-panel-prices-in-nigeria/

 

that investment means about 6 x 2 = 12kwatts of power.  and since you do not want to fully drain the batteries take that 12/.6 = 7.2 kwatts of power.

a s19 pro set to low speed does 2 kwatts.  so you could run it 3-4 hours a day.


so to run it a full day you need 3,150 x 6 = 18,900 maybe 20k

so 20k and 2k for the gear is 22k. the batteries will last about 3 -5 years.

a s10 pro on low spend makes 5.60 usd a day or 2k a year. so in 5 years you will have earn maybe 10 k against the 22k you laid out.  and it will be time for batteries.

[tjtonmoy]

A solar panel can only reduce your energy cost by giving some power to the miners and could also be used for backup supply if the electricity is gone. And from what I know, you can't run a whole rig only powered by solar panel. Maybe there are some new arrival on the market that could do it, but I doubt it that it will cost less. Solar energy supply may lessen your cost in the short term situation, but when it comes to the long term, it may not be that much cost-efficient.

[philipma1957]

A solar panel can only reduce your energy cost by giving some power to the miners and could also be used for backup supply if the electricity is gone. And from what I know, you can't run a whole rig only powered by solar panel. Maybe there are some new arrival on the market that could do it, but I doubt it that it will cost less. Solar energy supply may lessen your cost in the short term situation, but when it comes to the long term, it may not be that much cost-efficient.

yes you can.

but it is costly you must be grid tied and in a place where the government is friendly to solar builds.

I am involved with 3 arrays :

  45k
115k
280k
440k total. all grid tied.

all in the state of New Jersey.

Cost for them is around 1 million dollars.

they provide 70-80 k-watts a day 24/7/365 to be used for mining.

that is 23 to 27 s19 pros at no cost.

about 2.5ph

with incentives and deals with power company  they will be fully paid by 2030.

Solar is viable for mining but they are many ifs to add into that statement.

[stompix]

with incentives and deals with power company  they will be fully paid by 2030.
Solar is viable for mining but they are many ifs to add into that statement.

The ifs are:
- you need a grid that works 24/7 as a backup, not the case for OP
- you need incentives from the government, no subsidies are available either
- you need the plan to get paid for the extra energy you feed to the grid or at least get credits for when you draw power

It would work in every country that has these programs but it will fail completely if you're on your own, and the reason why nobody is actively mining completely off-grid at anything other than hobby scale.

that investment means about 6 x 2 = 12kwatts of power.  and since you do not want to fully drain the batteries take that 12/.6 = 7.2 kwatts of power.
a s19 pro set to low speed does 2 kwatts.  so you could run it 3-4 hours a day.
so to run it a full day you need 3,150 x 6 = 18,900 maybe 20k

It's a bit less since he won't be needing 6 times more batteries (24) if he goes for more panels, 12 will be enough even at 0.6 factors, again, only one inverter needed, so more like 15k overall, still he's better buying coins.

[tjtonmoy]

~snip

WOW! That's a huge amount. And from the info you gave, I don't have enough knowledge about it so may I ask, with those miners and hash power. Are you making profit? Or you can only make to re collect what you invested?
I think if someone like you invest a lot in solar panel, only then they can make profit. But if someone do it on a budget and low power supplying panel, can they do it too?

[Lida93]

Someone ask this question on Nigerians local board, the reason why miners are not located or negligibly located in Nigeria as a result of poor electricity supply. In Nigeria, electricity supply is poor in many areas and the only option anyone that want to mine can have is to use solar energy.

Assuming you get yourself like one or two Antminer S19 Pro, powering it with solar, will it be profitable after considering the budget and maintenance?

Those miners and solar panels are not manufactured in Nigeria, they are probably manufactured in China which will make them costly as they will be shipped.

Others are saying it might "probably not be profitable", but in this case I am saying it's not going to be profitable. As a Nigerian weighing the circumstances surrounding self power generation in the country is very expensive even for an owner of a small scale business not to talk of mining equipments that are very expensive to afford in addition to the solar panels too.  The country is highly import reliance country which means even when it comes to maintenance every parts would have to be imported.
There are many other unfavourable environmental factors to look at too that I think are only peculiar to we Nigerians alone and I believe that's why almost every Nigerian prefer buying bitcoin and hold instead of going into mining cause the profit is not feasible.

[jacksonabrams]

does it work that way?

[mikeywith]

Others are saying it might "probably not be profitable", but in this case I am saying it's not going to be profitable. As a Nigerian weighing the circumstances surrounding self power generation in the country is very expensive even for an owner of a small scale business not to talk of mining equipments that are very expensive to afford in addition to the solar panels too.  The country is highly import reliance country which means even when it comes to maintenance every parts would have to be imported.
There are many other unfavourable environmental factors to look at too that I think are only peculiar to we Nigerians alone and I believe that's why almost every Nigerian prefer buying bitcoin and hold instead of going into mining cause the profit is not feasible.

This is so true when going with any investment like solar, there is a very simple formula that you need to apply and it works for everyone, however, the variables used in the calculation are different, just because it works for Phill in NJ it doesn't mean it works for you in Lagos.

For a solar investment to mine Bitcoin it's safe to assume that by "default" it just does not work for most people unless your case is very special.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Something else to keep in mind is that unless there is a grid-tie or one helluva battery bank to keep the miners running 24x7, having the miners cycling on & off every day will put large thermal stresses on the chip/heatsink interfaces and the multitude of solder joints in a miner. Miners run HOT and the large temperature swings will not be good...

[philipma1957]

Something else to keep in mind is that unless there is a grid-tie or one helluva battery bank to keep the miners running 24x7, having the miners cycling on & off every day will put large thermal stresses on the chip/heatsink interfaces and the multitude of solder joints in a miner. Miners run HOT and the large temperature swings will not be good...

Battery is a killer.

A 10000 watt panel setup gives five to six hours of full power in a day

so 50000 to 60000 watts in a day.

grid tied 2- 2.4 kwatts every hour if you can grid tie.

battery you dont get that much cause you cant run the batteries down to zero.

a 10000 watt panel setup means maybe 1.5 kwatts cause you run the batteries to 40% full.

so you lose 24kwatts in power for the same panels.

worse the batteries die in five years maybe three maybe six.

so you lose daily power and have to buy batteries.

grid you don’t lose any of the solar to battery safety and the grid acts as a free battery.

my solar array would not work in many states. but it works in any state that the power company does a fair net meter setup.

so a grid tied setup allows 90-95% of the panel rating and the battery setup allows 40-50% of the panel rating.

To be honest to run a profitable battery setup is close to impossible.

[Artemis3]

If i were off the grid, i would use batteries strictly for essential needs, better to have the mining operation running only during the day.

[DaNNy001]

Someone ask this question on Nigerians local board, the reason why miners are not located or negligibly located in Nigeria as a result of poor electricity supply. In Nigeria, electricity supply is poor in many areas and the only option anyone that want to mine can have is to use solar energy.

Assuming you get yourself like one or two Antminer S19 Pro, powering it with solar, will it be profitable after considering the budget and maintenance?

Those miners and solar panels are not manufactured in Nigeria, they are probably manufactured in China which will make them costly as they will be shipped.

Others are saying it might "probably not be profitable", but in this case I am saying it's not going to be profitable. As a Nigerian weighing the circumstances surrounding self power generation in the country is very expensive even for an owner of a small scale business not to talk of mining equipments that are very expensive to afford in addition to the solar panels too.  The country is highly import reliance country which means even when it comes to maintenance every parts would have to be imported.
There are many other unfavourable environmental factors to look at too that I think are only peculiar to we Nigerians alone and I believe that's why almost every Nigerian prefer buying bitcoin and hold instead of going into mining cause the profit is not feasible.

Yeah I think that's the best thing to do in Nigeria here, I mean just as you stated above even if one considers to go into mining in our country Nigeria here the disadvantages of so many factors are included and not only because of the electricity shortage, the average nigerian earn a little portion of what is needed to run a mining farm and to start it is not even the issue, the maintainance and keeping the farm working is really the major factor so I feel just purchasing your bitcoin and holding as an advance investor is probably the best option and definitely won't cause you all the stress and expenses of running a mining farm here in Nigeria which I believe its possibility is even about 45% out of 100%.

[aldjjnclkasdndwqkndnwq]

Someone ask this question on Nigerians local board, the reason why miners are not located or negligibly located in Nigeria as a result of poor electricity supply. In Nigeria, electricity supply is poor in many areas and the only option anyone that want to mine can have is to use solar energy.

Assuming you get yourself like one or two Antminer S19 Pro, powering it with solar, will it be profitable after considering the budget and maintenance?

Those miners and solar panels are not manufactured in Nigeria, they are probably manufactured in China which will make them costly as they will be shipped.

if i have the money i will do it, a s19 consume ~ 3200w so if you want to run 2 you may need about 8kw of solar power, and a battery of at least 40kwh to serve as a buffer, and only mine from sunshine to sunset, it does not worth to do for 24hrs you will need 7kw x ~12hrs = a battery bank of at least 100+ KWh to be able to discharge it to a safety level for it life purpose

[Litzki1990]

A solar panel usually requires certain equipment and batteries to convert solar energy into electrical energy. And the solar panel should be placed in a place where sunlight presence is high. But that is not possible in Nigeria.  It becomes very risky for Nigeria. And the voltage that can be obtained from electricity is never possible to obtain such voltage from solar panels if there is not enough light.  And mining usually requires high voltage so I think mining in Nigeria using solar panels is a difficult task.

[StormHawk]

The only thing that's possible to run on solar panel in Nigeria is graphic cards, you can build a rig with 6 gpu and they whole rig will only take from 600watt to 750watt depend on the graphic card number, I don't advice anyone in Nigeria to use solar panel for asic miners, because they take too much juice, 2500 watt plus, to run this 2-4-7, you will spend too much money, your solar panel must be capable of over 6000 watt, because while charging the batter backup you still need to continue mining.