[RFI] FCC issues a Notice of Violation to Solar City for RFI Inteferance

[Robert Nobis]

Hi Mike,

Thank you.

When we first moved to our neighborhood eight years ago there were only nine other houses in this new subdivision. None of us had solar power then. Since then, about seventy other houses have been built, and in the last two to three years about 75% of the houses now have solar power and nearly all of these are from Solar City. 

During the last two to three years I have seen the background noise level here increased by about 9 to 10dB, and have felt it was primarily due to the Solar City installations. I have on several occasions called Solar City, and they have come out and looked at the systems at my two closest neighbors. Each time they claim everything is good, even though I can show them the noise level.

Anyway, your identifying the “optimizer” as an issue should help me.

Thank you.

Bob Nobis 
n7rjn at nobis.net


> On Mar 17, 2017, at 10:49, WD8ARZ <wd8arz at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> 
> Well done Mike, and thank you so much for taking the action you have
> and keeping all of us informed about it. 73 from Bill - WD8ARZ
> 
> On 3/17/2017 1:43 PM, Mike Kirkland wrote:
>> After an on-site visit and testing by an FCC Enforcement Agent of the ~S9
>> interference cause to my station by a Solar City solar array located 2
>> houses away, the FCC issued Solar City a Notice of Violation.
>> 
>> It appears that at least one of the primary interference generating
>> components is a load balancing device called an "optimizer" which is
>> attached to back of each solar panel. Testing by the FCC Agent showed that
>> the interference does not stop until the optimizer is detached from the
>> solar panel. Attempts by Solar City to add filters were unsuccessful and
>> only resulted in a few DB of change.
>> 
>> The optimizer (as well as the the rest of the system) is manufactured by
>> Solar Edge. I was told by Solar City when I inquired about them installing
>> a different type of system that this is the only kind of system that Solar
>> City installs. Given this it's not hard to envision that many Solar City
>> installations are causing this type of interference. Fortunately the FCC is
>> concerned about this issue and is actively working to resolve it.
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