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Release Date and Price

Started by Noel Bonilla, December 13, 2018, 11:17:50 AM

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Noel Bonilla

They will have estimated release date and estimated price?

ICPete

It's been over 3 months since the last posting in this sub-forum.
I'm wondering whether there is any new information about price and schedule, and current rating specs.

I'm designing my PV system, which now looks like it won't be constructed until Fall 2020, and possibly not commissioned until January 2021.
I'm considering five Classic 200 charge controllers vs two Barcelonas; the panel array will be 40x 305W (60-cell) Canadian Solar monocrystalline.
The 48V battery usable range will be roughly 42 to 62 volts.

I'd like to avoid clipping, even though only a very small percentage of hours per year would see over 11 KW of DC output from the panels, to keep the electronics temperature lower.
This is Arizona, 5000ft, where summer temperatures can reach 40C rather often, with a typical maximum of maybe 43C one or two days per year.
The charge controllers, batteries, and inverters will be in a concrete shed, insulated, in ground contact (slab floor); possibly with a thermostatically controlled fan/damper to keep the interior cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.
Using a battery voltage of 42, the Classic 200 can produce about 68A @ 25C, so maybe 61A @ 40C, for a max power of 2562W. Given it can only accept 4 panels in series at my panel voltages (44 Voc max), I could either have 8 or 12 panels per classic; 8 panels would stay under the 2562 max wattage it can deliver to a low battery. And this works well for my 40 panels total, as I can group them in banks of 8. So I would need FIVE of the Classic 200 controllers.
Whereas with the Barcelona, if they end up at 140A @ 48V (assume that's rated for 25C), their rating at 40C would most likely be around 125A. At a battery voltage of 42, that provides 5250W.
Putting 20 panels on each Barcelona (2 strings of 10 in series), there could be some clipping at 10.5 KW on a very sunny, warm day with the batteries near empty. But the annual loss would be minimal.

So as soon as it can be announced, I'm eager to hear the actual current rating, at both 25C and 40C, and the approximate price (an earlier forum message predicted around $1900 list).
In a few months I'll need to set the panel mounting plans "in stone" and commit to whether they will get mounted in four groups of 10 or five groups of 8. The former choice should be more cost effective.