"John Doe" wrote in message
news
"David R. Birch" wrote:

I've been think about installing this in my garage which
has no electricity running to it. I've googled "Solar
Powered Garage Door Opener" and only found general talk, no
one who's actually done it and no company that makes one.

Has anyone here done this or have more info?

What we need is viable solar shingles. That way, we can provide
power solar power for significant stuff. It will be a good way
of keeping the house cool at the same time. Maybe it will mesh
well with global warming...

Solar City installs their panels flat over the shingles for the same
effect. The other day I discussed adding a rubber edge to a roof snow
rake to avoid damaging them, as the rake needs to be dropped hard to
break through the icy crust one clear day and night causes.

If not removed, on a sunny day the snow slides off the smooth panels
in one big damaging avalanche.

The necessary series/parallel interconnections, control and protection
and the weight seem to determine the practical size of individual roof
panels. Mine are closer to shingle size and wouldn't scale up as
efficiently as larger panels. Solar shingles would be a problem to
maintain if you couldn't walk on or between them.

They use the grid for "storage" unless you buy a Powerwall battery.
The grid will have stability issues if too much uncontrolled input is
connected. Here it already fluctuates enough to turn on the UPS (relay
click & fan) several times a day.

-jsw