I have a friend who owns a farm some distance from TV; some cattle, hogs, chickens, and a sheltered greenhouse-type of building for starting plants as well as a large area away from the greenhouse for the plants to grow once started. Plants are watered automatically according to a set schedule, using rainwater which is stored in huge plastic drums (1,000 L?) and collected from the roof of his shop. Recently he put in a solar array. Big one, on a stand some distance from his house. He also has two storage batteries. His array keeps him in electricity for all routine operations, but the two flies in his ointment are apparently the fact that if clouds or bad weather persist for more than about two days he has to go back on the grid for power as the battery backup isn't sufficient, and the cost of the unit means that it won't pay for itself for (as I understand it) 15 years, and that is without maintenance costs, new batteries, etc.
Solar is great, but all your eggs cannot go into that basket.
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