Cryptocurrency Mining and Solar Power. Solution for High Electric Consumption.
In the state of Michigan where I live, we have one of the highest electric rates in North America at $0.16/kwh. For a crypto miner, this is a big problem. At this rate, a mining rig consuming 1500 Watt every hour will cost about $0.16 x 24 x 30 or $115.00 a month to run. If this miner produces 0.3 ETH(Ethereum) per month, with the current Ethereum price of $531, you are only making $44.30 a month. Not a very good return considering this hypothetical miner costs about $2500 to build.
Solar in Michigan? Does it make sense?
I always thought that solar power in Michigan did not make sense. We have a long winter and lots of snow. If you do a quick google search, they will give you a yearly electric saving of -$6000.
Yes, that's negative $6000. You will end up spending more money by going solar compared to paying the electric company according to their equation.
I think the biggest reason that these online solar power savings end up being negative is that it is provided by solar installation and leasing companies that is trying to make a profit. This calculation includes the money that they make off you from installing and leasing the solar panels to you. I think that by installing the solar panels myself and pay upfront for the equipment, I can make this idea profitable and tweak the solar array system in a way that makes it more efficient for crypto mining purposes.
What's the actual cost?
So, lets figure out how many $ per kwh I might be able to produce with solar in Michigan if I payed for the upfront cost out of pocket without going through a leasing company. To make this calculation, I used information from "The 2017 Case for Residential Solar in Canada" . I decided to use the data for "kwh of solar produced per year"/"kw of solar installed" from Toronto in this chart since it is the closest Canadian city from Detroit.
Assuming that it costs $3/watt of solar power installed, installation cost will be $3000/kw.
According to the chart above, kwh/kw per year for Toronto is 1161kwh/kw per year. Multiply that by 30 year life of an average solar panel and you have 30year * 1161kwh/kw/year=34800kwh/kw
Then use the installation cost to get the kwh cost: $3000 per kw/34800kwh/kw = $0.0862/kwh
This is a lot lower than what I am paying now ($0.16/kwh). This is definitely a viable option!
Snow Problem?
This is where it becomes interesting for crypto mining. The solar panels cannot produce any power when it is covered in snow.
What creates alot of heat? Mining rigs!!
Why not use all the heat that is created by the mining rigs to good use? Melt the snow with Miner heat!
Artist rendering of my awesome idea
With this idea, I am hoping that I can get even better rate than what I calculated before.
Conclusion
I think that if my mining operation keeps increasing, I will go solar. As with anything, the more kw of solar you buy, the cheaper it is per kw. So, I would like to shoot for a 10kw system which I think will cost about $22,000. Which is not a chump change. In order to make this investment, I will want a bigger mining operation and to see more return from mining.
I live in NJ, so probably do not get as much snow, but we do get our fair share, and most of the time the snow just slides right off our solar panels within a day of a storm. I'm sure it depends on the angle of your roof, but the smooth surface of the panels allows this. It can be dangerous if you are below, we are having some kind of spikes installed soon to hold the snow in certain places so it doesn't fall on anyone. Anyway we love having the cost savings, have had no bill the past year except for a few winter months. Now we have started mining so we are going to have a slight bill but are thinking about adding more panels. Good luck.
Nice to hear from someone who actually have experience with solar. We get alot of snow in Michigan and snow tend to stick on the roof of houses. If a house doesn't have a snow on a roof around here, it's usually a sign of bad insulation job or no insulation.
That is my goal eventually. I don't want to keep paying money to the electric companies.