Seventeen acres and a dream

In 2006 two friends invited Chris Deziel to buy a 17-acre ridge property above Monterey Bay. It was far from turnkey, and the off-grid solar setup was part of the appeal.

“The property was far from turnkey, but we were prepared for an adventure”

Twenty years later, no panels

They are still on the ridge in 2026. The solar system is gone, replaced by utility power after a run of financial, logistical and weather-driven setbacks.

“we're still here, but the solar energy system is not”

What the system actually was

Six 175W Shell panels fed a charge controller and 16 lead-acid batteries, running through a Xantrex 48V inverter to the main panel. A 10kW biodiesel generator backed it up.

Undersized from day one

Gas appliances kept the load light, but the well pump and jet pump still drained it. The previous owners had added a pool pump; the generator kicked on so often they scrapped it.

The generator everyone hated

It sounded like a Mack truck and pushed black smoke into the sky, and it ran constantly. Biodiesel to feed it was expensive and hard to find.

“It sounded like a Mack truck and pumped thick black smoke into the sky”

One bolt ended it

Lightning hit the inverter building about 20 feet from where they were sitting and fried it. The charge traveled down the wires and killed the generator's control panel too.

Off-grid still needs neighbors

With no power at all, a nearby neighbor let them run an emergency cable off their panel. Isolated in the backwoods, they would have had no way to restore anything.

“When You're Off-Grid, You Need Friends”

Years on a jerry-rigged cable

The hookup grew into a heavier cable, a bigger breaker, a meter to split the bill and a subpanel back-feeding the property. The unsafe setup lasted several years.

“This jerry-rigged and dangerous situation persisted for several years”

Grid power cost six figures

Reaching the nearest pole meant burying cable 400 feet under the road, plus a panel, wiring to outbuildings and full code compliance. Quotes ran $80,000 to $125,000.

Solar quotes were worse

A system sized for their real needs came in at $110,000, and one with a high-end Kohler backup generator hit $130,000. Those numbers already included the 30 percent federal rebate.

“They blew our socks off.”

Free energy was never free

Batteries cost $3,500 to replace and lasted five to seven years. Repairs meant calling local contractors who might not understand the system, and who billed either way.

“It turns out you still need to buy components and maintain them, so the electricity isn't free.”

Code compliance sealed it

The DIY system would never pass inspection, and a new one might fail in a decade as standards shift. Utility power also came from a grid PG&E was greening for everyone.

“Tying to the grid guaranteed code compliance in perpetuity”