Small but interesting contribution to the OpenVillage technology (not yet a full Solution though …): Nezza, the owner of the house we are living in here in Sidi Kaouki, is currently on site and we had an interesting discussion about adding photovoltaics to the House (again).
In short, the House had a full off-grid photovoltaics setup with 14 large lead-acid batteries and approximately 2000 W(p) in solar panels. Until 2012, when grid electricity arrived at the House and the inverter was stolen so that the photovoltaics setup was neither functional nor necessary.
But the panels are still on the rooftop (see 
) and Nezza’s question was how to make them usable again with (1) minimal investment, (2) avoiding batteries because they tend to break and (3) respecting the rule in Morocco that feeding electricity into the grid is not allowed for anyone connected to the low-voltags grid (means, households and small companies).
As a result, I wrote this:
During that research, I found several interesting options, but my favourite is the SolarFighter solution. Also suitable for anyone living in a city who wants to lower their electricity bills, as it has minimal installation requirements (solar balcony, anyone?) and minimal regulatory requirements (since it exports nothing to the grid).
Both per-panel microinverters and a string inverter with per-panel DC-DC converters (the “SolarEdge approach”) work to integrate a variety of panels.