Pondering large solar array in back yard

[Keith Lofstrom]

Anybody here with a largish photovoltaic system for their
home or business? Suggested Do's and Don'ts?

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I have a large back yard between Beaverton and Portland that
I don't use much, and hate to mow.

I ponder spending less-than-$300K to replace dandelions and
some grass with perhaps 10,000 "ground square feet" of solar
panels over much of the yard ... and harvesting enough power
to feed my home and 7 (or more) neighboring homes, sometimes.

I can share many reasons offlist.

My questions are:

(1) who has done this and understands the details?
(2) what taxes and subsidies and hidden costs are involved?
(3) good books and technical papers about backyard solar?
(4) suggested products and contractors?

I will coordinate with neighbors, of course. Perhaps my
southeast neighbor will want to do the same.

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Note, I have a masters degree in electrical engineering,
though my billion-copy chip products are attoacres and
nanowatts, not half-acres and kilowatts. Very similar
math and physics, very different exponents.

I CAN do the math.

( Scientific Notation RULES, though I do not like large
integers after the E when counting dollars. )

16 years ago, I rewired my house, with two detailed
inspections by Real Electricians before the Washington
County three minute inspection. I expect the same
"inspection" process for what I build in back.

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There are many other pieces to the puzzle, including
preparing for the next Cascadia fault earthquake, and
nibbling away at planetary roasting. Both involve long
time spans and square-law consequences, which very few
can calculate, and far fewer have the ethical training
to prioritize. Those who can and WILL "do the math" are
welcome to discuss this off-list. r-strategists who say
"not my job" can direct lazy excuses to /dev/null.

Keith L.

P.S. In 2026 May, US solar generation exceeded coal
generation for the first time in history. That's the
clue-stick that finally got my attention.

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Keith Lofstrom kei...@keithl.com

[Nathan DiNiro]

This is a serious idea, but I would frame it less as “cover the yard and feed the neighborhood” and more as a staged engineering/permitting project. I have been working on "behind the meter" data center design and implementation. I am a little surprised that we are not talking about putting data centers on satellites, but I am love geeking on a sizable solar array. 

My first pass would be:

1. Define the legal interconnect model before buying anything. Behind-the-meter for your own home is one project. Exporting power for neighbors is another. Community solar / shared credits / resale of electricity can trigger utility, OPUC, tax, insurance, easement, and interconnection issues.

2. Start with load data, not panel area. Pull 12–24 months of interval data for your house and willing neighbors. Then model: annual kWh, summer peak export, winter deficit, outage-critical loads, battery sizing, and transformer limits.

3. Treat 10,000 sq ft as a land-use and civil project, not just an electrical project. Ground mount means setbacks, trenching, racking, wind/seismic loading, drainage, access, vegetation control, fencing, fire access, disconnects, grounding, and probably neighbor aesthetics.

4. Do a phased build: maybe 15–25 kW first with battery-backed critical loads, then expand after the interconnect and permitting path is proven. A full “yard-scale” array could be 100–200 kW depending on layout, which is no longer normal residential solar.

5. Don’t assume subsidies. Federal residential economics changed after 2025, Oregon rebate pools are limited, and some incentives require approved contractors. Model the project both with and without incentives.

6. Battery backup for Cascadia resilience is a different design goal than cheapest kWh. If earthquake resilience matters, prioritize islanding, critical load panels, water, comms, refrigeration, medical loads, EV charging, and black-start behavior.

The people I’d want at the table early: a local solar EPC that has actually done ground-mount + battery + PGE interconnects, a land-use/permitting person familiar with Washington County, a CPA, and an attorney who understands community solar / energy resale / neighbor agreements.

I would be very interested in helping pressure-test the model. The math is doable. The hidden dragons are interconnection, legal structure, storage economics, and whether the utility transformer wants to be part of your experiment.

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From: wwwan...@googlegroups.com <wwwan...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Keith Lofstrom <kei...@keithl.com>
Sent: Sunday, 21 June 2026 22:30:12
To: wwwan...@googlegroups.com <wwwan...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [WWWanderers] Pondering large solar array in back yard

 

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"Science would be ruined if it were to withdraw entirely into narrowly defined specialties. The rare scholars who are wanderers-by-choice are essential to the intellectual welfare of the settled disciplines."  Benoit Mandelbrot
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