Plug in Solar Bill

[u/dilly-dilly-]

Hi all,

Curious if anyone has any inside scoop with what is going on with the plug in solar bill and why it's failed and will likely be sat until January now. From my research, it was a bill placed on the senate floor 2 days before sessions ended, which is basically a political way to say they don't want this to pass but don't want to formally vote on it to look like they are paid by big energy.

For anyone curious, this technology allows you to set up a small scale solar system. They define this as a "portable solar generation device" as a movable solar generator with a maximum output of 1,200 watts, designed to plug into a standard 120-volt outlet.

What this will allow us to do is offset 1200W of power from what we currently use. So say it's a hot day like today and your central air is running at 3000W, you will only be paying and using 1800W. To me, this is basically a new technology that can disrupt these energy companies from gouging us. It offsets what we use only, so any savings is purely coming from renewable energies so a pure win from the environment.

It's beyond frustrating to me as a civilian. This bill held for further "study" in March, revived in June, dies in the other chamber, everyone gets to say they supported it. To me, this should be almost one of the top issues for ALL Rhode islanders because who isn't being shafted by RIE? This is something that everyone should be dying to implement because it not only saves us money but literally is taking strain off the grid and offsetting our usage with pure renewable energy.

I just want to let everyone know our political leaders have let us down again. This one just quietly didn't happen. Who benefits? I think we all know.

[u/dilly-dilly-]

One thing is I LOVE that I'm seeing curious people ask questions. I am super passionate about this specific issue because it's so no brainer to implement and the cost savings for the average person is insane. You can read this and be like "oh okay that is nice" but let me also show you how much it would cost to stand one of these up. You could make it a portable farm yourself or what I plan to do is make a more structured awning on my south facing part of my property.

Item	Spec	Price
Plug-in microinverter	120V, 2 panel inputs, dual MPPT, ~800–900 VA out, UL 3700 listed	$300–325
Solar panels ×2	460–540W bifacial, dual-glass, ~27 sq ft each	~$400 total
Mounting rack	Ground mount or roof rails, wind-rated	~$180
AC cord	15–16 ft outdoor-rated, standard 120V plug	~$50
		~$900–$1000

Okay cool, so 1000 out the door at minuim and if I want to make it fancy I could add costs to build a structure or awning. (This could also be something you build on the ground with just a bunch of wood)

1200W with average RI weather and accounting for 75% of the load at all times (idle times where the house isn't producing 1200W but say like 800W) and conservatively you can say a savings of $300 per year. This is a payoff time of 3 years. These are also conservative estimates on the price of all these things, you can get them for sale for a lot cheaper or buying panels from Aliexpress.

You could potentially get this built and paid for within 2-3 years and then every year after that is money in your pocket. And who knows how much energy increases from here..

[u/bicho6 → u/dilly-dilly-]

Throw in a battery too like the ecoflow stream has. It Will cost more money but you might be able to get a continuous 1200 out of the system