Topic: Solar panel powered mining ? (Read 5082 times)

It is incredibly difficult to justify sinking the added expense of solar panels - given the huge electrical demands of mining equipment. Easier to setup in an area which has cheaper electricity

Again, mining s not only about the price of electricity. It s about mining difficulty which s been rising big time due to large Chinese farmers having access to cheap equipment and cheap power. So, BTC mining s gone industrial and having free electricity cannot make serious profits unless you invest into larger mining farm. What I am saying is that all this hustle s not worth of it if u re gonna make a few hundred $ in the end.

Sure you could with solar panels but not with just the panels...

You can not just hook up a "12" volt panel to a miner is will blow up the chip$ on miner, it must Not be over 12 volts,
a "12" volt panel puts out ~18 volts. You could use a buck/boost converter they sell them on ebay but only in small 3-12 amp range last time I checked, a few years ago.

Going larger:
You need to study the VOC on cold day as solar panels can increase power up to 30% in cold climates
This is some what important if your Controller is only rated for 150 volts and your panels get cold and put out <150 volts.
(temperature coefficient (Pmax) and (Voc) and (Isc) in degree C. it's around 25% in cold climates (-20C). If you live in warm climate don't worry about, your panel will never over volt or over current. Your can also get 600 volt SCC they work fine
Note: about Mono vs Poly panels, in direct sun Mono win. In clouds polys win.

You will need wires, breakers, boxes, disconnects, lighting protection etc and what happens when clouds come? Battery's $$
SuperCap/Ultracaps will or not work depending on time needed they need 10 times the space of battery's, but the caps and battery's are nice match with cell balance.
Series only caps are also need cell balance but that's just a few little items. So they don't over volt.

But only Caps is bad idea hears why C=C/N say you have a 400F 2.5 volt supercap and added 24 of them is series (48 volt sys)
400C/24N= 16.66 F and don't forget the ESR (resistance) that is also multiplied, a good 400F is ~2.5 milli ohms x 24 =.06R
A Winson 100 amp LiFePY04 ESR is advertised as <0.45 milli ohm. Even so they do have what I call spring or reaction time unlike a supercap. Lead acid have much large "spring"

I'm am there with ~10Kw of solar and still only mine in day time and use battery power for ~1000 watts at night. (10-20% DOD) I got some old S1 and S3's and even a 800 watt Avalon (good heater)

$20K should get you ~100Kw of new lead acid battery and another $14k ~14Kw of solar) some face east and west, most south. You need to adjust the angles 2 time a year for summer and winter for max power also.(~60K DIY)
Unless you invest more for trackers.. more possible problems.
if you find the right people.. Plus don't forget your time if you do it yourself which is the only way enless you'r very rich..
But you will learn fast and do a lot of reading, best to start small just to understand the basics..

Still you most likely will learn the hard way that draining you battery's and not fully charging them is a death sentence.

Even with the Lithium LiFepy04 they need to be charged with 25% min charge or they become un-matched (voltage run away's) Say you got a 100 Amp hour Lithium LiFe04 it should be charged at 25-100 amps but no less than 25 amps, unless you have a powerful cell balancer. Most people don't know that.. and with clouds this is problem, with solar.

With Lead Acid Forklift wins hands down, don't use Marine, Golf-cart are little better if you fully charge them each time.
And lead acid don't like to be fully discharged and sit for days waiting for the sun, they will sulfate you'll notice the sides will bulge and then you have to spend the summer desulfating them, smelling acid and get regretful. But I did get >1400 cycles from the Golf cart battery's, and they still are not worn out just sulfated, from not fully charging to 2.5 volts per cell.

The Forklift battery's in much better shape 1250x2 AHour cell(s) taking ~12 amps at 61 volts (2.54 V per cell) >.5%
Of course you can not do this with a cheap solar charge controller (SCC) you need one with the "boost" like the XW series
And you need to keep the battery's cool less than 20 C so then you need a heat pump AC or put them under ground.

They call for 2-5 % of capacity finish ampere finish witch is 50 amps finish, (2500 AH * 2% = 50) What they don't tell you...
Every cycle will leave sulfate on the plates, unless you fully charge but fully charge also will corrode the pos plate, a very thin line to follow..

The Lithium's cost more but are not time consuming. And follow simple rule of charge rate. Best life is 80% StateOfCharge.
(not charging up all the way)

With full sun I max out the XW6048 Inverter it's rated for 6000 watts, but you easily up that to 2 or 3 parallel  and get ~18KW or maybe more..

The other comments are correct the cost of solar just for mining is not worth the total cost, unless you have to go off-grid .
I got into solar in 2011. I heard about Bitcoin in ~2014.. from the News.

Thanks all for your input. I see is not worthy for me to undertake this investment yet. Once the price of solar panels start to fall a bit as now is some kind of premium asset hence it's being sold with a very expensive price at least here where I am located.

I checked all the threads and I see there is hope for me in a not so distant future. With S7 I saw it can be done but S7 doesn't mine that good now ,imagine when difficulty goes up so am quitting this idea which I had together with a friend.

Locking the topic.

This topic was discussed many times here and Im' pretty sure you can find some interesting information following the links below.

Solar generator for mining rig:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--213164

Solar panels to fuel bitcoin mining:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--1145324

Solar Mining, Wind and Water Mining, and Flexible or Lightweight Rigs:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/solar-mining-wind-and-water-mining-and-flexible-or-lightweight-rigs-432557

Mining project with S7 and solar panels:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.13933792


IMO the costs of the solar panels, their installation and their exploitation are so big that it's almost impossible to have ROI in the foreseeable future, but of course you know better about your conditions and so only you can make the right decicion in your particular case.

Having only 1 or 2 miners and installing solar simply is not worth your effort. Cause not only you need to ROI on the miner but also on these additional installations. With this ongoing and galloping BTC mining difficulty, that s not gonna work out and you will end up losing money. Classic mining rigs re much better option in case you do want to mine and want to go solar. However, again the issue s scalling. Without investing $10-$15k into this, it simply is not worth your time and money.

There re several other interesting ways to make money in crypto and I will gladly share some of my projects with you, for a fee. 7 days money back guarantee. Also, please note I am a legendary member here with a certain reputation, no BS on my side.

Whatever you decide, good luck in your endeavors.

It could be done, but you would need multiple panels or perhaps a VERY LARGE commercial-type panel, and one heck of a large battery bank or a "grid-tie" setup to handle times when there is no sun.

I wanna run 1 or 2 S9 miners together with a friend but seeing that a solar panel produces such a low amount of watts is totally an unworthy investment. A solar panel I have asked here cost about 10.000 Euros. It costs this much because the company selling them it says you can never pay for energy during most of the year, you can power your boulier, your fridge and washing machine, and watch Tv.

I need a solar panel to produce 2200 Watts, or at least 1600 watts as that is the minimum PSU for antminer S9 from what I have seen in the internet.

So in the end it cannot be done I see ?

First of all you should have to decide that how many miner machines you are planning to run, then calculate the total watts of each. Each solar plate has 250 or 300 watts produce.

I am USA based.  I have no idea how Solar power is subsidized in Europe.

But  no battery system  works that well.

If you tie into the grid  and  have a deal with the power company it may work for you.

I do want to mention  some people have purchased used forklift batteries and managed to make a battery system work.

I have  a solar array thread for solar mining in New Jersey, USA tied to the grid.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/solar-array-starting-to-look-good-1369207

Maybe this is already been asked here but my question is a specific one. I live in a well developed country which has more than 200 days of sun. I am thinking to buy an antminer S9 to try out mining bitcoin but without using electricity cause electricity is super expensive here. The antminer to operate well I have been reading guides and watching videos all over the internet needs a good 2200 WATT PSU.

What is the cost of a solar panel capable of fueling such power to the Antminer S9 ? I will not use that solar panel for anything else. I am asking this question mainly to European users as there is where I am also located.

Waiting impatiently for your answers.