#849 – Setting Up Solar Power in Latin America: Practical Tips and EMP Preparedness

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came out to play and now I wonder Hello there all you expat wannabes. I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America The show that tells you just what it's like to live work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started All right by popular demand and I mean popular I'm gonna answer lots of questions about how to set up a solar off the grid and partially off the grid system here in Latin America the latest and the greatest news now remember in a past life I was an actual electrical and biomedical engineer even have a handful or more than a handful of electronic

[00:51] Nano motors control patents with my brother who is also an engineer and another Eastern European engineer and mathematician friend of ours He was the actual brains behind the outfit, but that's another story Of course, that was a long long time ago, but I still try to keep up with certain Engineering aspects like solar power. In fact, what I'm gonna tell you right now is stuff that I've done myself I've investigated all in what a solar setup or two and have really done the homework Let's put it this way There are tons of different kinds of solar systems out there different kinds of batteries and birders charge controllers panels With prices and quality Burying all over the place and of course if you have the money you can hire a big outfit to set the whole thing up For you and you'll pay twice or three times what it would cost you to buy and put together yourself

[01:39] And though that might sound scary. I guarantee you you can save ten grand by doing it yourself these days There are only three components to a solar system It's not a rat's nest of wires and boxes and controllers Not anymore. All you need to be is a bit of a do-it-yourselfer and you can put most all of it together yourself You'd be amazed you have to see these all in one units now Just the unit solar panels separate fuse or breaker box and that's it three components You mount your panels outside run two or four wires to the unit inside the house and you're done The problem is it's so confusing starting with how to size your system It doesn't help that there are millions virtually millions of blog sites on how to set up your own do-it-yourself solar systems Well, I'm here to tell you it's a minefield

[02:26] Then if you're looking for the latest greatest solar panel and battery technologies at the best prices Problem is they are not I repeat not found easily doing a simple Google search I'm using the G word Google as a generic word for searching here You know, I don't use Google myself. I use start page that comment In fact, I got it set up as my home page So I never get any of those annoying ads or pop-up windows on the right side or the bottom of the screen However, nine years ago when I first started this show, I had to get an email address for a listener So I got a Gmail address Naturally, it's part of Google and they file staple track and sell your debts, right? Well, I screw with them too by running it through a VPN sometimes that VPN is out of Brazil So that's where Gmail and Google's AI think I am so the pop-up windows come up in Portuguese

[03:17] So who gets the last lap there? So one of my hobbies is doing things solar and getting over on the electric company I mean, come on. It's one of the five best feelings in the world sticking it to the electric company, huh? Anyway, here's the thing when you come down to Latin America and get that plan be going most of time You're gonna be renting right? So what the hell you do then if you want to go solar Well, I'll keep listening and you'll find out how to do a very portable system You can move from place to place even in a half hours time this might not surprise you but I've got a complete off-the-grid solar system at the main house and a System that I could throw in the trunk of my car kind of like a bug out solar power system You could take it on trips to the woods or to a beach house Or uncle Julio's farm way out in the boonies where he might not have dependable electric service at all

[04:04] I'll get to that. I'll tell you what systems to buy what I am using So today and probably on the next show too I'll be talking about how to have your own off-the-grid or partially off-the-grid system and that portable system That'll be just the envy of everyone and you know, every time I look at my little portable system I think of those people in Venezuela who are scrambling just to get their iPhones and cell phones charged But hey, they knew it was coming. They watched their country slowly deteriorate and they weren't prepared. So it's really their fault Now when it comes to solar there's one thing to remember these days It's all about the battery and the state-of-the-art if you have paid attention to Tesla cars and stuff is lithium-ion But lithium-ion batteries aren't all the same. There are many companies making them like Samsung and LG. They make

[04:50] Fantastic lithium-ion batteries and they're improving them all the time every year. They get smaller safer and more powerful In fact right now I think Tesla LG and Samsung have some kind of agreement and they're doing battery research together and later We'll be talking about the life of these systems How long the batteries and solar panels last and we'll talk about the damaging effects of EMPs on solar systems, too You know electromagnetic pulses the Sun puts them out routinely and every 50 to 70 years is a real doozy There was a minor one in 1989 in Canada But it did lots of damage the one people talked the most about was an 1859 called the Carrington event Back then people's houses were not wired But they had telegraph poles and some of them actually burst into flame get this in 2012

[05:40] We missed one of those very powerful events by nine days And you know household appliances and world power grids are not protected They could be and should be but people in governments just aren't doing it now in regards to EMPs Some come naturally from the Sun you knew that are you right and they're used as weapons these days all countries with nuclear Capability can wipe out the electric grid of another country by just blowing off a nuclear bomb way up in the atmosphere Without physically damaging or irradiating anything on the ground. The intent is to wipe out the enemy's power grid Well, guess what that's recent two thousand one hundred and twenty six Why you really ought to get the hell out of Dodge and move to Latin America because there's nothing down here Strategic enough to merit an EMP bomb. However, if you live in the US Europe or Canada

[06:27] That's a cheap and dirty way for a terrorist group to wreak permanent havoc In fact, I was just reading an article in an aircraft magazine and engineers were talking about EMP attacks And they said they said when the next EMP comes and it will there's an 80% chance It'll be from war or terrorist attack and a 20% chance that it'll come from our Sun now They were talking about an EMP event over the US That means if you're living in Latin America, you can eliminate that 80% terrorist war business with an EMP You can only worry about that other 20% an EMP coming from the Sun However, if there is such an attack in the US those aerospace engineers are saying the northern half of Mexico Could have its grid completely wiped out because of its proximity to the US and because it's intimately

[07:14] Connected to parts of the US grid and you know a human initiated EMP attack Even if it's a very tiny nuclear suitcase bomb Launched by a terrorist group on an old modified Russian or Korean cruise missile if they can get it high enough up into the atmosphere It could easily take out the entire grid of a state as large as Texas Which would take part of Mexico's grid with it, too Now if it's a natural EMP coming from the Sun if it hits the earth and like I said We're over two for a big one now Where it's gonna hit depends on the time of day or its rotation and dumb luck As mentioned the last EMP of note in the first world anyway was March 12 1989 it burnt out multiple large power transformers and left the entire province of Quebec without power for 12 hours

[08:03] 200 transformers connected to that grid got fried and some of them were in New York So how'd they get back online so fast? Well, it was an isolated event and there were spare parts But with a bigger EMP strike like the Carrington one could take out half a country But you knew that already right or did you so why am I mentioning EMPs at all people don't remember that far back? 1989 where were you? Maybe you weren't born yet, or just an embryo But I assure you something like that is going to happen again, and we're overdue for it That's what geoscientists and astrophysicists the world over are saying the Western world is not ready for it There will be chaos, but I understand that Russia and China have hardened their grids Isn't that funny now if you have a solar system you can harden that against EMPs, too

[08:51] It's so simple cheap and easy. There are just a few steps involved Oh, and if you're gonna remember just one thing about EMPs besides the fact that if you're in Latin America You won't be prone to any of the man-made ones Just remember this wherever you are in the world if you have a solar power system That's attached to the grid that is feeding power back and your meters running backwards and all that That's the cool thing to do people who've got Tesla power walls and stuff They're all feeding their excess power back to the grid paying nothing or next to nothing on their electric bills However, if there's an EMP and you are connected to the grid Your solar system is gonna fry because that EMP pulse is gonna be absorbed by the wires in the grid and it's gonna feed Right back into your system and fry it then what are you gonna? Do call Cleveland power and electric call Tesla the phones the computers and the internet won't be working either. Sorry

[09:39] That's one of the reasons is I personally would never hook up my solar system to the grid In other words, I like being my own power plant just for me now Thankfully solar EMPs do not come at the speed of light. They're not photons They're a plasma takes around 18 hours to two days before they reach Earth So you'll get at minimum a half-days warning Which is very cool because then you could spring into action and save all your equipment number one is you disconnect the main breaker on the wires coming from your solar panels to your controller and Your controller and the battery pack is protected now I know some of you guys and gals who've been messing with solar panels and units yourself You're thinking what about those big hundred dollar lightning arrestors? You install next to your breaker box supposed to protect you from lightning and strenuous electrical voltages and stuff will forget about it

[10:28] EMPs are a different animal all together So that $100 midnight solar surge protector won't do a thing for an EMP The key thing to know is when you get advanced warning on an EMP coming from the Sun disconnect any wires coming from your solar panels that are going to your controller and battery box and Disconnect the wires that come from the solar unit that feed the 110 voltage lines going into your house's breaker box Surprisingly enough solar panels themselves are pretty resistant to EMP attacks even if they're wired up It's your controller and battery box that are vulnerable by the way if you want to see a short but very great YouTube with some engineers Actually shooting EMPs into various devices like solar panels computers cell phones and stuff You can see just how they get fried and how easily it is for you to protect yours

[11:16] Send me an email the expat files at gmail.com and I'll send you those YouTube links So as far as EMPs solar and otherwise you don't want to have lengths of wire attached to your devices The good news is with the solar EMP you'll get plenty of advanced warning bad news if you're up in the states And it's a terrorist or some kind of war scenario. You'll get no notice and you're screwed now I'm not trying to give you the doomsday scenario or anything It's just that I'm getting lots of emails from people and most of the people who listen to this show most of the listeners Are well above average and consider these things they don't take them lightly In fact, there's a huge contingent of nerds geeks and scientific types that listen to this show They're always over represented at my expat insider seminars, too I've had guys from NASA MIT even a guy from the Max Planck Institute in Germany

[12:04] Yes, even astrophysicists come to my expat insider seminars How about that the next one kicks off in Guatemala July 6th and runs through July 11th? Just go to www.thenewexpat.com click on Johnny's seminar link and you'll find out all about it And how to kill two birds with one stone and get your residency started in Guatemala, too And you know when people say Johnny will I get my money's worth? Well, all I have to do is point out the fact that we keep getting repeat offenders over and over In fact, I'm on seminar number 16 now And I've never had a single seminar except of course the first one where I haven't had repeat offenders In fact with the upcoming July seminar I've only had the sign-up sheet there for two weeks and I've already got along with first time people signing up to repeat offenders

[12:51] I've even had some people repeat the seminar three different times If that doesn't give you a really good sense of the worth of the seminar I don't know what will oh and those of you who want to come down to the seminar as a single Some of you have asked me if I could hook you up with a roommate because you know You're gonna save I think it is this seminar $750 off the single price Because you'll be sharing double occupancy in our hotels with another person. So we pass that savings on to you Oh, and if we hook you up with a roommate, sorry kids. It's same-sex only. Oh and no changing sexual identity in midstream either Okay, never thought I'd have to say that Only in America with a K. Alright, so we've got around two and a half months before the seminar kicks off And I just want to remind you guys who are coming down to kill two birds with one stone that has come to the seminar

[13:40] And apply for your Guatemala permanent or temporary residency Remember, it'll take about one month often a lot less than that But let's just say one month to collect all the paperwork and necessary items to start your residency process So I always recommend you sign up for the seminar at least one month before it kicks off That way we can put you in touch with our seminar lawyer So he can advise you along the way on how that process will go and hold your hand through it now I've said about that that to solar power getting off the grid and or Supplementing grid power during power down conditions. Oh and another thing for those of you who've been asking about wind power Yeah, there's plenty of wind here in Latin America I've got a lot of hills valleys and mountains makes for some terrific currents and breezes Now if we could only find a way to harness all that latent power from blowhard windbag

[14:29] Know-it-alls parked in gringo expat bars, but I digress as usual Anyway, when power is great, but I don't recommend it because it's so very expensive compared to solar these days So has come down dramatically in price and it's a mechanical system Rotating parts and gears and all that and those kind of things wear out not to mention with wind power It's all about location. So when power yeah, it's good, but it's best left to big commercial producers You know wind farms and such but still they have their problems the major one being high maintenance So first, let's talk about electric grids here in Latin America, you know for all the little annoying power Outages you'll experience in almost any place here in Latin America. Sometimes they're only three seconds long

[15:15] Sometimes a minute sometimes just a flash where your lights dim for a second and boot They're back on again. Obviously over the years have been huge improvements Well, that's because Latin governments sold off big chunks of the electric utilities Usually making it a partnership holding 50 or 51 percent of it themselves By the way They call that patch of money because you see when Latin governments first started selling off their utility companies electric telephone, etc The people picket it took to the streets put up roadblocks had massive protests in front of presidential palaces, etc Now all this happened some years ago So if you come down to Latin America now, you won't see any of that anymore But there was a time and I was here back in the 1990s and right around the year 2000

[16:00] We are governments made deals with first world international phone and power companies, etc And naturally all the unions and socialist labor groups were told they were gonna lose their jobs The new private partner was gonna come in and fire all the dead weight and that means everybody in Latin government Government everywhere So they all took to the streets But you see the politicians weren't gonna back off on those deals because they were worth billions of dollars a massive Lottery win for all those corrupt large-ass politicians So the scumbags got richer richer, but in the end it turned out to be an overwhelmingly good thing because the private companies They came in gave a gigantic boost and upgrade to the infrastructure and that's what it's all about What good is it to have a 21st century hydroelectric power station first-class tip-top shape when all the transformers wires cables and power lines

[16:51] Leading to the nearby towns and cities were installed in the 1950s So in the end the masses on strike in the streets were promised they weren't gonna lose their jobs and eventually they were trained phased out or bought out and The stragglers the countries that didn't make those kind of deals and hung on to their utilities because of socialist unionist and populist pressure These days in the 21st century They have the most amount of power outages the most complaints the most rolling blackouts and the highest electric charges like for example Costa Rica Cuba and Venezuela Although in Venezuela electricity like gasoline is highly subsidized and therefore dirt cheap problem is you don't get electric power 24-7 it's never a good thing when your government runs your utilities You hear that Bernie and all you other P brain socialists up there

[17:39] All you have to do is look at Latin America where the socialist experiment has been tried over and over again The results are always the same Everything the government touches turns to crap. Hmm sound familiar Can you think of any agency the government runs up in the states that isn't a corrupt black pit money hole? But you knew that already right? So I'll stop the rant Speaking of power grids and the infrastructure here in Latin America things have vastly improved in the last five years. However, In those gringo tourist areas like Costa Rica Colombia most of Mexico and every place to gringos are piling in even those public private Electric utility company mergers have not been able to keep up with the power line infrastructure Because well things are growing way too fast. For example in the area of Cancun Playa del Carmen and Tulum

[18:28] That's the Yucatan in Mexico with all the gringos and tourists piling in the building of condos and high-rises Outpaced the infrastructure. So the infrastructure are multiple power outages However, if you're staying at a hotel as a tourist or in a package deal You won't notice that because they've all got generators big modern backup diesel generators Just like hospitals have so the fact is you might be staying in a condo or an apartment in a high-rise Thinking maybe hey, this is a cool place. Maybe I'll invest and buy one you thinking man ain't this a life white sand beach Beautiful water expensive. Yeah, but that's what happens when gringos fell in besides when we're in a tourist area We're always thinking we can rent the place to an Airbnb or something, right? Sure It's expensive, but everything's perfect and not a single power outage and you've been there two weeks now

[19:15] Ah, but what you don't know is there are many little power outages You just don't see them because the generators automatic and it kicks in before you even realize it So you really have to investigate and find out if the infrastructure is keeping pace with the building and construction a lot of cases Especially on the tourist trail. It's not unless of course, you're like me and say screw the electric company. I'm going solar Problem is there are many gringos and expats will say to me You might like to get an apartment in this really cool residential tower I love the concept of being able to come and go and it's completely secure because it's a building with elevators and guards And all that stuff so I could leave it for months at a time and not worry a bit But there's no way I can do solar. That's always been my dream to get off the grid There's nowhere to put the panel. So I'm screwed

[20:02] I don't want a single-family house or a house on the boonies I want to live in a residential tower because I feel so much more secure. I travel a lot Well surprise surprise it can be done. Here's the deal For example, if you're intending to buy a condo on the sixth floor of a 10 floor building Here's what you do You have a little meeting with engineer maintenance and the project development people tell them you are gonna buy the place contingent in the contract on the fact that you have permanent use of let's say 15 by 15 foot square area Where you can put 10 solar panels now remember here in Latin America nearly all well-made buildings are concrete steel and glass And almost all of them have flat roofs or nearly flat roof So mounting solar panels permanently a no-brainer now Believe me if you bring that up to the building's architect or the building engineering or maintenance people

[20:50] Unlike a few years ago these days They'll kind of know what you're talking about because if you go up in any high-rise building these days You just take a gander over the landscape You'll see solar panels pop up here and there and if there's any place perfect for solar power It's Latin America. If you think about a roof on a residential complex as kind of a parking garage That means everyone gets a space or they should have a space, right? Sometimes there's really no good access to the roof. It doesn't matter You just have those solar panels put up there once and forget about it Or maybe you check them every six months to a year and sweep them off or something or have the maintenance guy hose them down Get the dust bird bat poop off of them You know maintenance in most cases the management company or condo owners association Whatever will agree to let you put some panels up there because what's it to them?

[21:37] There is almost always tons of open space and no one's up there Anyway, best of all worlds is to get the penthouse then you'll have a huge balcony and you can do what you want there Even so if you buy a unit or apartment on a lower floor You can still have solar and with 10 solar panels or even less you can be completely off the grid Why because these days the technology is so good with solar panels that just one panel one standard sized panel can produce? 400 watts so 10 panels is 4,000 watts and that's more than any family of four could ever use at least here in Latin America And that's even if you use air conditioning. I'll get into that a little bit more later. So hang on I'm just mentioning this because just about three to five years ago All you could really get was a 200 or 220 watt panel now get this you can buy an industry standard

[22:28] 330 watt panel for slightly over a hundred bucks and that's amazing sure you can get a 400 watt panel But they're cranking out 330 watt panels by the million so you've got the economics of scale. That's why they're so cheap So imagine for example with just 10 panels 330 watts apiece again That's plenty of power to go completely off the grid for a nice little family of four and the one time cost no more than 1500 bucks Talking about just the panels now. Oh and by the way when they say a solar panel is guaranteed Let's say 25 years, which is normal for the decent panels That means it's guaranteed to produce 90% of its rated value For the first 10 years and the next 15 years up to age 25 80% of its value

[23:16] So for example to make the math easy if a panel is rated at 300 watts after 25 years It's still guaranteed to put out 80% of that which is 240 watts when you got full sun exposure So you just have to remember that solar panels because they're being exposed to the weather in the Sun all the time and they're awful Hot will degrade slightly less than 1% a year But you also have to consider that things are changing so fast with solar Especially the panels and the lithium-ion batteries that even in five years There'll be panels that will be putting out for even 500 watts for a hundred bucks a panel and you know They're all a standard size. So instead of 10 panels, you'll only need six So in a way, it's better not to think about that 25 year guarantee that most of the good panel companies will give you now

[24:01] Because in a way the technology advances like smartphones. I mean look a smartphone from five years ago It's a clunky dinosaur like door stopper. That's how we'll look at today's solar panels in five years But that's no reason at all not to get in right now because they're really good enough They're very good same thing with the batteries, which is really the most problematic part of any solar system For one thing, no matter what batteries you're using you can't let them get too cold But that's not a problem at all here in Latin America. That's never gonna be a concern Number two is the weight of the batteries, you know for years before lithium-ion batteries came around people use traditional lead acid batteries Like the ones in cars, but the best ones the most practical were the ones used in golf carts Believe it or not. They also outgassed needed airflow around them and were full of acid

[24:50] Then just a few years ago came the big breakthrough lithium-ion batteries, you know The stuff they used in electric cars Tesla Powerwalls and all that and now they're at least four or five different kinds of lithium Batteries and even though they're about a third of the weight of traditional lead acid batteries for the amount of power They store which is a fabulous thing in itself Think of this a while if you were to go off-grid and completely solar you over design it a little bit And let's say you get a 10 kilowatt system and these days you can buy them in an all in one unit No separate charger battery box controller In other words three or four boxes with all kinds of wires going in and out of it. That's old school Now it's all in one unit. Oh, they're heavy. All right, but some of them have built-in wheels Just plug the solar panel wires into the back and you've got 110 or 220 outlets right on the unit

[25:38] Or you could hardwire it to the breaker box in your house and you're set Anyway, let's say you order a 10 kilowatt system That means the battery will hold 10 kilowatts of charge once it's charged up of course from your solar panels or right off Your current on the grid, you know You can use these things without solar panels and keep the charged off the grid So if there's a grid down for hours and hours that thing will be like a giant battery backup But that's not really what we'd want to use it for though. The capability is there So anyway, these all-in-one systems have dual charging capability you could keep the batteries charged by always having it plugged into a 30 amp wall socket or Solar panels and of course if you size the system, right? You'll never have to draw power from the grid. You'll always get your power from the solar panels

[26:26] Anyway, suppose you bought one of these all-in-one 10 kilowatt systems on wheels And of course, if you've seen the Tesla Powerwall, it's the same thing but no wheels It just mounts on a wall. Thus the name Powerwall Well, you know what a 10 kilowatt system weighs or a 12 kilowatt Powerwall? That's what the Powerwalls are rated at about 350 pounds That means once it's in place, you don't want to move it. If it's a Tesla Powerwall It's gonna hang on the wall if it's one of these other units, which I'm highly recommending I'll talk about it on the next show It's on wheels and looks like a small two drawer file cabinet. Believe me It'll take three strong men to move it around. I said men. Yep There's nothing SJWs hate more than the truth. So sue me. Oh, by the way

[27:11] Have you ever contracted a moving company? How many women did it take to move that grand piano? Try none because moving companies don't hire ladies for the grunt work. They hire big burly hairy sweaty men Hmm. I can almost hear the paper rustling now on the SJW class section lawsuit to be continued You've been listening to the expat files living in Latin America If you need some help with your own plan B, you can schedule a one-on-one phone call with me But first download my free plan B questionnaire at www.thenewexpat.com Better yet if you want to get your plan B going from right up there in the States Just sign up for my 9-hour expat essentials course Get the perfect plan B blueprint by going to the expat files comm slash Academy most famous