There are trade off's and Kub's post addresses some of these. Our hydro system is the nucleus of our project, we have a mini grid as we run power lines from the hydro plant to an employee cabin, the lodge, 2 cabins and now the last construction which is an additional cabin and coffee processing building. This mini grid starts at the intake of the water, runs 200 meters of penstock, the small building where the pelton wheel and generator are stored, the load controller, the dump cistern with 8 channels of 1500W, the individual power lines to each of the building mentioned above, the timers on the electric hot water tanks to stagger their output, switching out heating elements from 4500W down to 1500W on the electric hot water tank, the whole big ball of managing power distribution recognizing like any other grid that there are peak times of consumption and how we have to optimize this. All the while that pelton wheel spins 24/7 putting out a steady 7.6kw except in the late dry season for a couple weeks when the intake sucks air and water due to a drop in the water level and our power drops to about 5.5kw
4 Refrigerators, 2 floor freezers, 1 electric hot water tank, microwave, toasters, coffee brewers, power tools on the construction site, rice cookers, coffee roaster.
The one over riding big asset of going off grid is that you get super intimate with all your power appliances, super intimate with your power generation, you never ever take for granted generating your own power, and for me, much like Kub's post, I have a new respect for the electrical grid and what a marvel it is that it runs as well as it does.
Having said that there are frequent power outages in the town nearest us about 20km away. We are up here humming along with our 7.6kw while the entire town nearby is often having a brown out or black out. When this happens I sit back and smile and say to myself.....it's all worth it....
We are the classic case of off grid being justified because we have no choice. WE have guests that journey up here to this remote location not expecting to find internet, hot water, refrigerators, etc. They often come from other resorts that are off grid and depending on solar and they marvel at all the power we have.
It would take a lot of square footage of roof space to set up a solar system with 7.6kw out put......
Hydro applications are really specific though, solar can go up anywhere, few places have perennial streams with elevation drop required for hydro systems.
I enjoy Baha's posts and enthusiasm and success with solar.... keep it up.