Solar Panels, how'd they work with Ida?

My neighbor has solar panels and says he can’t use them when the power is down bc the energy that flows from the panels to the power company endangers line workers. Which is dumb if true.

If you want the monetary benefit of solar panels you still have to be tied into the grid to sell back power therefore you will be cut off for any outages so the line workers can safely work on the lines.

You could install an ATS to disconnect off the grid and use your panels, but most dont.

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Which is dumb if true.

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You sound like a complete idiot

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Considering a generator, but wondering if the money would be better spent on solar.

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No lol. Get the generator

I think now if there is a grid tie, there are ways to shut off the backfeed to the line.

Very curious about this. The solar arrays that people put in their yards sure look like they'd catch the wind very efficiently.

I am blown away that people will shell out that much money for solar panels and not spend another few hundred bucks for an ATS.

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I am blown away that people will shell out that much money for solar panels and not spend another few hundred bucks for an ATS.

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An ATS won't work. The inverters will not turn on unless they see grid frequency. To do it right you need to add storage.

Feel free to ask any questions about this because I think its important to get the truth out there about capabilities, storm resilience, etc.

Solar is near useless for hurricane prep.

First, you’d need to be off-grid or have a switch to go off-grid. Otherwise, when power goes out, so does your solar.

Second, your panels would have to survive the winds and debris hitting them. They’re fairly fragile.

Third, you better have plenty of batteries to store power.

Fourth, from the day or so before a hurricane blows in to 2-3 days after, your panels aren’t going to produce much if anything because it’s not exactly sunny those days.

For all that, you’ll be spending tens of thousands of dollars. Why not spend $1,000 on a solid generator, a few hundred more on gas, gas cans, plugs/cords and have a switch installed on your meter or a transfer switch installed?

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Very curious about this. The solar arrays that people put in their yards sure look like they'd catch the wind very efficiently.

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Looks can be deceiving. A lot of it comes down to who built it. I led two hurricane recoveries of solar fleets and you would be surprised how they made it. One of those was in Puerto Rico where all the construction is flat concrete so all of the modules are pitched like a ground mount would be. Were modules lost, absolutely. But it was well south of 10% and that was mostly due to debris impact, racking failures, etc. Fast forward to a Typhoon hitting another fleet in the pacific. Only one installer put these in and they did a damn good job. Same construction type. No racking failures, less than 5% modules failure with only a handle full flying off. The vast majority were impact damage. Of the ones that flew off, we hypothesized that they flexed and popped out of the clips. That was taken back to the manufacturers to be corrected.

ETA these were both Cat 5 storms.

Solar works fine in off-grid situations if you set it up correctly.

For real off-grid, You need a battery bank that you charge up and use and a grid disconnect so it doesn't harm the linemen when they are working on the grid.

If I lived down there I would have both a true off-grid solar system and a generator. You can always use the generator to charge the battery bank if you aren't getting enough solar.