Quote from: ccgllc on April 03, 2018, 04:49:26 AM

Quote from: selfblumpkin on April 03, 2018, 03:43:56 AM

Holy crap where did my math go wrong on the power, you're 100% correct 800 * 1370 = 1,096,000

Thank you for the info. Once i get passed the business plan ill reach out.

Also chuckled when you said "a warehouse with a roof big enough". Basic solar math, presuming you want to run on 13.5TH S9, with a real world consumption of around 1450 watts:

* (1) typical panel, lets say a 130W one, will produce about 4 hours of power a day at 80% of its rated rate (since the rated rate is optimal during noon soon in the tropics): 130*0.8*4=416 watts per panel per day
* Each miner therefore requires about 3.5 panels
* 1 megawatts of power = (690) 1450W miners = 2,145 panels at about a square meter each, so call it 21,450 square feet of roof space over a data center that doesn't need to be over 2000 square feet in size, likely larger.

But wait... Nobody is going it invest that type of money to run miners for 4 hours a day, so lets add batteries and enough panels to run for a full 24 hours: 80% efficient charging batteries = 2145*6/0.8 = 16,100 panels. So about $2M in panels. Batteries to carry say, 3 days of clouds, will match that cost. So now your at $4M. Oh, but wait again... we only have enough panels to keep ourself running for 24 hours and now, after a cloudy day or three, we need to run AND charge those batteries. Better double the array size (now $4M and 32,200 panels). Plus battery chargers, inverters, etc. Add at least another $2M.

So, we have $6M in solar infrustructure to run 690 miner at something like $1300 each current pricing (sorry, Bitmain doesn't have 13.5's listed right now, which this math is based on); eg. ~$900K in miners.
At $0.10/kwh, and 1MW of required current, each hour cost $100. So in about 7 years you will break even. Except that your batteries will likely have been replaced once in that timeframe and likely be coming due for a second round, at $2M a pop. Good news, electronics are likely good for 10-15 years.

Oh, and since we now have 32,200 panels in our little setup, your going to need about 320,000 square feet of south facing roof. That just a bit over 7 acres ON THE SOUTH SIDE. So a 640,000 square foot warehouse of which you will be using around 2000 square feet. Or perhaps you could find a 6000 square foot building and provide about 1% of your power for a mere $60,000 - but why bother.

Granted, you could grid tie, and eliminate the batteries and half the electronics, but then you need to deal with paying retail power rates and likely being credited wholesale power rates. Not aware of many NEW grid tied solar contracts that allow for reversible meters like they use too. They electric companies have wised up and paid off the right politicians to protect their turf.

If you mine with solar power on batteries you will almost always come out worse off than if you just bought the power at residential retail rates. You have to factor in wear and tear on the batteries - which by itself can be greater than just buying the electricity. On another note - if mining on solar power skip the inverters and power supplys and use direct current DC converters.