"Miss Movie Masochist"4d ago

Huh. So "plug-in solar" is a panel-level micro inverter. That inverter must sync with the AC from the grid, and then feeds in power as long as the grid *also* has power ('anti-islanding').

Yeah, that would offset some costs for apartments and homes, but does nothing during an outage.

Show threadvarx/social
@socketwench Unfortunately, most residential solar installations in the US are also anti-islanding. This is kind of crazy to me, but I guess people don't want to shell out for the hybrid inverter and battery that would allow their panels to act as backup generators. (That, and probably hostile electrical code in some areas.)
Mar 31 at 2:54amWeb
Show thread"Miss Movie Masochist"3d ago
@varx It's a lot of hostile electrical code. Many states had lobbying by the power industry to always grid-tie rooftop. It massively raises the price of the installation, and requires professional installation. It's specifically designed to make it suck more.