By Kevin Conlin, Autonomous Power Solutions.  Conlin has helped several Billboard Insider readers design solar powered billboards.

In yesterday’s Solar Power Lessons, Jim McIntyre makes some very valid points about solar powered billboard reliability.

It’s been my experience that when you design a solar system for high reliability (99.9%) the cost is often too high for the customer to justify the use of solar.

The problem is they will often opt for a cheaper system, that works fine part of the year, but fails miserably during winter, when days are shortest, and long cloudy periods are the norm, even in the southern US.  In this scenario, the billboard owner often concludes that solar just doesn’t work.

The best opportunities for solar are high visibility sites, in a sunny part of the country, where the billboard owner can recoup his investment in several years.

Battery replacement, typically every 5 – 10 years, depending on technology, should be factored into the cash flow equation.

The bottom line is reliable solar systems aren’t cheap, but much better value than the cheaper one that stops working in the first year.

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