This is a very nice development, but it is tackling the easy stuff. I'd love to see an open source inverter that can operate in stand-alone mode or in grid connected mode. All of these grid connected devices with closed source are a massive risk, especially given how small and cheap a WiFi or cell modem is nowadays.
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guerby
Open source open hardware microinverter incoming (with certification for EU grid):
Glad to hear it - but cost of renewable energy isn't the software or hardware locked behind vendors. Its installers, wholesalers and permitting. Pricing is set to about where homeowners will be willing to pay and installers will make a good profit. If only it was a 5 year payback - we'd see it everywhere in NA.
show comments
vanillax
Great use case for solar shed/offgrid/cabin... I think people underestimate how much you can do with a solar shed , batteries, and the sorta reduced risk aspect of a shed catching fire vs a house. That being said its really easy to follow safety precautions. I cant wait to try this out.
lentil_soup
A meta comment and really don't want to distract from the product but as a Spanish speaker, the word "libre" for open source projects really grids my gears. It's specially bad when used with "libre" before the subject (like LibreOffice or Libre Solar). It sounds a bit like Brad Pitt saying "bonjourno" in Inglourious Basterds.
Libre does mean free as in freedom, but it also means available and released from prison.
show comments
gosub100
My wishlist:
- dc motor conversions for air conditioners and voltage controllers that can adapt to multiple panel types to drive it. There's a lot to be gained without going all-in an inverter. What if I stayed on grid but heavily offset my heating / cooling bill by having a wall mount unit that was free to run during daylight hours on a completely separate circuit?
- conversion kit to make the wall mount unit a heater in the winter months
- a DC home system for select appliances such as lights, computers, or even refrigerators. This requires more precise voltage regulators because DC is more finicky when you add / remove loads. But you save some losses in efficiency.
- a thermal battery, so my window mount cooler can freeze a solid block of ice all day during the sun, and use it to cool me when I get home. It would be sealed of course. But condensation would still have to be managed. Maybe a hot water tank adapter that uses excess electricity and dumps it in the tank, but not so much to explode. Again, a form of offset, not a replacement for gas. Another thermal battery could be a sewage tank that aborbs heat from the AC unit before it goes down the drain. This would reduce the load of the fan.
- a wind generator that works best in storms. It could dump straight to a heating element and fan indoors. Who wouldn't love free heat during violent storms? Maybe it could have a clutch (mechanical or electric) to tune the load to the wind gusts.
- a solar cooker, maybe with a molten fluid or superheated steam. The latter can go well above 500F so plenty hot enough for cooking. But of course very dangerous so would need a professional device, if it's even possible. But this would allow e.g. restaurants in the summer to offset or replace heating for their kitchens. It pains me to think of how much energy is wasted in a hot desert city to pay for a gas grill and then pay again to pump to he excess heat outside.
> Unless stated otherwise, none of the published devices has passed regulatory certification, so use them at your own risk and responsibility
This somewhat limits the usefulness of the hardware anywhere you need to be insured, e.g. your house, boat or van.
Why ZephyrOS?
ZephyrOS: https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr
Would there be value in modeling this system with TLA+?
Why build another open product?
There are a few GitHub topics for solar electricity:
solar: https://github.com/topics/solar
photovoltaic: https://github.com/topics/photovoltaic
pv: https://github.com/topics/pv
battery-management: https://github.com/topics/battery-management
ups-management: https://github.com/topics/ups-management
inverter: https://github.com/topics/inverter
Photovoltaic system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photovoltaic_system
This is a very nice development, but it is tackling the easy stuff. I'd love to see an open source inverter that can operate in stand-alone mode or in grid connected mode. All of these grid connected devices with closed source are a massive risk, especially given how small and cheap a WiFi or cell modem is nowadays.
Open source open hardware microinverter incoming (with certification for EU grid):
https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/7Q9HMF-open-solar-pow...
2025 for archive:
https://archive.fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-6...
Glad to hear it - but cost of renewable energy isn't the software or hardware locked behind vendors. Its installers, wholesalers and permitting. Pricing is set to about where homeowners will be willing to pay and installers will make a good profit. If only it was a 5 year payback - we'd see it everywhere in NA.
Great use case for solar shed/offgrid/cabin... I think people underestimate how much you can do with a solar shed , batteries, and the sorta reduced risk aspect of a shed catching fire vs a house. That being said its really easy to follow safety precautions. I cant wait to try this out.
A meta comment and really don't want to distract from the product but as a Spanish speaker, the word "libre" for open source projects really grids my gears. It's specially bad when used with "libre" before the subject (like LibreOffice or Libre Solar). It sounds a bit like Brad Pitt saying "bonjourno" in Inglourious Basterds.
Libre does mean free as in freedom, but it also means available and released from prison.
My wishlist:
- dc motor conversions for air conditioners and voltage controllers that can adapt to multiple panel types to drive it. There's a lot to be gained without going all-in an inverter. What if I stayed on grid but heavily offset my heating / cooling bill by having a wall mount unit that was free to run during daylight hours on a completely separate circuit?
- conversion kit to make the wall mount unit a heater in the winter months
- a DC home system for select appliances such as lights, computers, or even refrigerators. This requires more precise voltage regulators because DC is more finicky when you add / remove loads. But you save some losses in efficiency.
- a thermal battery, so my window mount cooler can freeze a solid block of ice all day during the sun, and use it to cool me when I get home. It would be sealed of course. But condensation would still have to be managed. Maybe a hot water tank adapter that uses excess electricity and dumps it in the tank, but not so much to explode. Again, a form of offset, not a replacement for gas. Another thermal battery could be a sewage tank that aborbs heat from the AC unit before it goes down the drain. This would reduce the load of the fan.
- a wind generator that works best in storms. It could dump straight to a heating element and fan indoors. Who wouldn't love free heat during violent storms? Maybe it could have a clutch (mechanical or electric) to tune the load to the wind gusts.
- a solar cooker, maybe with a molten fluid or superheated steam. The latter can go well above 500F so plenty hot enough for cooking. But of course very dangerous so would need a professional device, if it's even possible. But this would allow e.g. restaurants in the summer to offset or replace heating for their kitchens. It pains me to think of how much energy is wasted in a hot desert city to pay for a gas grill and then pay again to pump to he excess heat outside.