Inverters for Photovoltaic (Solar) System

[sbsmark]

Hello everyone. I work for a small solar energy company and we always have old/broken inverters laying around. The inverters convert the DC electricty from solar panels into AC electricity. They range anywhere from 2500 - 11000 watts in size. I showed some interest in them and my boss told me I could take all the broken ones for now on because they just take up space and he has no interest in doing anything with them. I've searched the forum for any info pertaining to these and I can't find anything. I apologize if this has been discussed already.

Some of these inverters cost a few thousand dollars brand new. I'm wondering if they may contain a decent amount of pm's. I am far too busy with work and school to tackle this project myself right now. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with these. Perhaps, someone local would like to take one off my hands to let me know what kind of value they have? I could also post pictures if that helps.

I know this is a tough question to answer without seeing it. But is this a piece of equipment that would interest anyone?

 

[nickvc]

I know nothing of these items but you ask if anyone local might be interested in them without giving a location!

 

[sbsmark]

My apologies. I listed my location in my profile but I guess it does not show on my posts. I live in southern New Jersey.

 

[jimdoc]

I doubt there will be any precious metals in them, more like low grade power supply type boards.
Pictures will help. I sent you a private message. I may be interested in one or two to try to repair.

Jim

 

[chlaurite]

I haven't taken apart ones that big, but smaller ones contain:

• Heavy duty relays, mean nice silver contacts inside.
• BIIIG capacitors - Typically the aluminum can kind, nothing very valuable (though generally big enough that you might get a halfway decent amount of metal out of a steady stream of them).
• A handful of MLCCs or tantalum caps.
• Probably a microcontroller (CPU but smaller), depending on how much control and monitoring your products support.
• Possibly some connectors/sockets.

 

[Smack]

Should also have a large extruded or cast aluminum heat sink with fins that makes up most of the outside of the unit.

 

[chlaurite]

I may be interested in one or two to try to repair.

Heh, my first thought as well - I have a small solar installation I've slowly grown over the past couple years, currently near the capacity of my inverter.

Then I considered, do I want to risk burning down my house - Or killing a lineman if the anti-islanding protection fails in an outage - To save a few hundred bucks? Okay, the big ones run into the low thousands, but same idea. Just not worth the risk.

 

[Emmjae]

My company scraps 1 to 2 Gaylord’s of this type of equipment a week for a major manufacturer of this type of product. (My contract prohibits me from giving they’re name or re-selling of their products)
The main scrap value is in the non-ferrous metals. Very little precious metals are used that I have found worth the time harvesting other than the silver and gold relay contacts and some random gold fingers.