Is it the beginning of the end for Solark?

[OffGridForGood]

15k. Is that a Sol-Ark?

yes, - listed in @DIYrich "about"

 

[timselectric]

IMO the end user cares about the properties of the solution - system cost, operating cost and savings, duration of autonomy, operational quality vs level of operational expertise (we should assume average customer knows next to nothing: IE can’t run their own networks or do their own oil changes, don’t understand how true up math works…

whether from brain too small or has to use brain for more important stuff than basic utilities. I have a ton of scientist and engineer friends and they won’t want to use their brains on this stuff).

That reply doesn't fit the conversation.
But that's OK. Because the conversation doesn't fit the topic. lol
I'm not going to be part of derailing it any further.

 

[DIYrich]

15k. Is that a Sol-Ark?

Yes

 

[OffGridForGood]

Maybe, don't forget that sol-ark is basically a reseller/rebadger .

as are EG4

Should they go down ( which I don't hope as their support seems fantastic) Deye will take over..
What I do see happening is that they will have an issue with the margins as they are extreme..

It takes staffing/costs money for the fantastic support, the question becomes how much of a premium is justified for this support.
It feels far to high to me, but typical consumers are not like typical DIY Solar Forum Members, our support needs are different.

I think the playing field is levelling out a bit and do forsee sol-ark being forced to lower their margins by quite a bit

I see more products & competition and this will be good for DIY and the industry overall, if SolArk will lower margins or not is yet to be seen. If the industry continues to expand, new products and competition may not force SolArk to lower prices; instead they will focus on specific market segments

Also I have the feeling they are focussing more on installers, which skews the "social media" factor.

Perhaps, and this may be their best avenue for a future with lower cost competing products coming online.

 

[Danke]

Yes

Then you can connect micros or a smaller inverter to GEN port.

 

[timselectric]

Back on the topic.
If Sol-Ark can stay competitive. They will be fine.
With more new products hitting the market. This gets harder and harder to do.
Competition is great for the customers. Not so much for the profit margins.
Sol-Ark had a bit of a monopoly for a while. Which allowed them to charge whatever they wanted.
Their future is in their own hands.
Time will tell.

 

[MajicDiver]

Offgrid inverters require the loads to be moved to after the inverter.

That is simply not true. My off grid system feeds into a breaker in my main panel. My incoming utility feed breaker is locked open. I have no transfer switch, if for some reason I have multiple equipment failures and had to go back on grid, I open breaker for grid forming inverter and shut breaker from utility- has not happened and of course don’t expect it to.

 

[42OhmsPA]

I think soon enough you'll see Solark offering hv battery models in the US, maybe more micro inverters too.
They'll be fine...

Deye Best Inverter Product

Deye manufacturer and wholesale best Inverter and accessories worldwide. Inverter solution and service at Deye company.

www.deyeinverter.com

 

[Danke]

I think soon enough you'll see Solark offering hv battery models in the US, maybe more micro inverters too.
They'll be fine...

Deye Best Inverter Product

Deye manufacturer and wholesale best Inverter and accessories worldwide. Inverter solution and service at Deye company.

www.deyeinverter.com

https://www.sol-ark.com/wp-content/uploads/60K-3P-480V-N_SpecSheet.pdf

 

[1201]

Sol-Ark is selling more Inverters than ever, the reason why your not hearing all that much is because they are now much more focused on Installers and competing for more of the market share that the Bigger Solar companies have.

Sounds life they've conceded the diy market to others, namely eg4

DIY Solar was always a very tiny 2% slice of the Market with not much room for growth and it's also unpredictable because more regulations will probably be created in the coming years to make DIY harder.

Funny as I think diy will get bigger as it gets more difficult, more expensive, and less profitable to be grid tied.

Another big area of growth in Solar is the business sector, that is why Sol-Ark is getting heavily Invested in HV Inverters and Batteries.

Id like to see how this plays out. Do you have any links to large commercial projects that have used solark equipment? When I think large commercial projects, solark just isn't a name that comes to mind.

Lastly Sol-Arks just work, so making YouTube videos of a Sol-Ark system installation is not going to get a content provider all that many clicks.

Fair enough. Although I haven't heard many reports of the 18kpv(main solark competition) not working yet I see 3x as many of those installs 3 on YouTube as I do solark.

 

[Quattrohead]

There is more than enough room for everyone, this party has just started.

 

[1201]

There is more than enough room for everyone, this party has just started.

It has just started and the price gougers will be gone soon

 

[MajicDiver]

price gougers will be gone soon

That will never happen - it still occurs in the oldest businesses that exist- there will always be those humans who have the ability to convince some people to pay many times more for a fantasy of something worthy of it.

 

[Hedges]

https://www.sol-ark.com/wp-content/uploads/60K-3P-480V-N_SpecSheet.pdf

Connections 277V / 480V Three Phase Continuous
AC Power with PV 60,000W | 72.2A (480V)
Continuous AC Power from Batteries 60,000W | 72.2A (480V)
Surge AC Power | 7 sec 120,000VA | 144.4A x 277V x 3
Parallel Stacking Yes - Up to 12*
*Pending. Please contact Sol-Ark before designing or installing a parallel system.

Surge 144.4A at 277V on each phase! If stacking is made to work, 12x that for 1700A surge per leg!

Idle Consumption Typical—No Load 60W

Is that really 60W no-load, not some mode where AC output is turned off, only searches occasionally for loads?
Compare to 25W no-load for 6kW Sunny Island. SolArk of course being high frequency.

At 277/408Y, that's only some larger installations, and needs transformers to supply common 120/208Y loads.
Better I think to separate out two three-phase systems, feed each from separate HF inverters. SolArk offers the lower voltage with 3 of their single-phase inverters.
But step-down from 277/480Y to 120/208Y is distributed within the facility, for instance in a mall where often each unit has its own transformer.

Wonder how well it performs, including efficiency, with transformers?

 

[1201]

That will never happen - it still occurs in the oldest businesses that exist- there will always be those humans who have the ability to convince some people to pay many times more for a fantasy of something worthy of it.

Well, you do have a good point.

I still see the writing on the wall for Solark. I don't care how good they are at convincing people ?

 

[ArthurEld]

Well, you do have a good point.

I still see the writing on the wall for Solark. I don't care how good they are at convincing people ?

The good news is the 18K is only $5500. And you can plug the Solark into the gen port until it dies.

 

[1201]

The good news is the 18K is only $5500. And you can plug the Solark into the gen port until it dies.

Actually I think the 18kPV is now down around $5000

 

[MajicDiver]

Well, you do have a good point.

I still see the writing on the wall for Solark. I don't care how good they are at convincing people ?

And don’t get me wrong, my comment had nothing to do with Solark- I have not looked at it hard enough to have a qualified opinion of it.

 

[Danke]

Actually I think the 18kPV is now down around $5000

Two Deye 8K (equivalent to Sol-Ark 12Ks) for that amount. 4 MPPTs (26/26/26/26A vs. 25/15/15A) and 33+% more power.

 

[zanydroid]

I wonder if micros that can be turned off without frequency shifting, would be a big enough market. Add to a system without having to parallel a second inverter. If a micro has shutdown functions, it isn't much more to be able to send a targeted shutdown signal.

I have a special case where max export to grid is 25Kw that is set by the utility. I can't parallel a 2nd 15k because the potential is there to exceed the limit. Having 10kW of ac solar would be helpful.

With regards to this microinverter is supported on all microinverters by using an external disconnect relay. This is somewhat common on AC coupled systems, where “Gen” port can be configured to as a AC coupled input. I don’t believe they provide much control over the disconnect logic. You can add your own if you want but it will require programming a PLC.

Hoymiles provides granular control over microinverter output. You can set limits down to individual port level in their local, well documented API. You can definitely turn off and on. In between is also supported, I would have to look again if you set a percentage limit or absolute limit if you want something in between.

Aren’t you still below the limit with 10kW micros plus whatever inverter the 15K has? If so then nothing fancy is needed

Happy to continue chatting on another thread. Almost missed this question because I was throwing in the towel on this thread because I think I got all the (limited) learning value from it.