3G Sunset Affecting Solar Panel Communication - Warranty, Legal Issue?

In March of 2019 I had the first solar panel array installed on our property.  As part of the system, there is a cell modem that communicates production of the system, for SREC credit calculation & payments, and fault monitoring.  

I recently received an email from the solar installer that systems installed prior to 2019 would require an upgrade to the cell modem, as the older 3G card would no longer function as the 3G network is being discontinued.  I sent them an email asking about my system, since it was installed in early 2019.  This is the response I received, below.  The short version is my system does use a 3G modem, and in order to continue witht he system working as it currently does, I need to shell out $800 for a new cell modem.  

"I went ahead and confirmed with SolarEdge that, your 2019 system uses 3G network to communicate and is affected by the discontinuation. The device your system uses to communicate uses 3G network to connect and report to the SolarEdge portal. The cell providers (AT&T, T-mobile) discontinued the 3G network, so the network your cell kit uses to communicate will no longer be available.

Your current cell card will have to be replaced with one that connects with the 4G network in order to restore communication. A new cell kit is $799 as a flat fee to replace.  As a courtesy to prematurely affected customers, SolarEdge will extend all new 5-year cell communication plans to December 31, 2028. Depending on your provider, your communications will shutdown at some point during 2022.

It’s important to note that this potential interruption will not affect solar production. Your solar will be working just fine, it just won’t report its production data to your monitoring portal. You can verify your system is still working by going outside to check the unit. You would see a green light, which indicates the inverter is on and producing power. If system does stop communicating with the portal for an extended period of time, once it’s resolved, the missing data will backlog to the monitoring portal, and any missing SRECs can be retroactively applied.

You also have the option to not do the upgrade at all, and self-monitor your system. You can use the display screen on the inverter to view your production. You would then have to provide your production totals to your SREC broker, whether it be Sol Systems or SRECTrade. I would recommend reaching out to them to get more information on how they want you to manually report. It usually entails taking a picture of the production on your inverter(s) and going online to the broker’s website and entering in the production for the month. If you choose not to go through with the replacement, you will not be able to view your production in the SolarEdge monitoring portal and SEW will not be able to troubleshoot your system remotely. You would have to check your system periodically to ensure there are no errors or a red light on the unit. If there is an issue, you would then have to reach out to us so we can service it.

If you would like to have your cell kit upgraded, you will have to fill out a form I send via DocuSign in order to receive this service. This form will have you provide your credit card information, so once the new cell kit is installed, our monitoring department will verify your system is working as it should, we will run the card you provided. I will send you an email notifying you we are processing your payment and a follow up email with your payment confirmation.

Supplies are limited, so we only have a few cell kits in stock. Once you submit the form, you would be reserved to receive a cell kit. Please let me know if you wish to go forward with the replacement, so I can send you the DocuSign form."

Has anyone else been affected by this?  This seems like a) a warranty issue, and b) something they should have known about in 2019 when they installed the system.  I make about $200 a year in SRECs, so it would take me 4 years to offset the cost of the new modem.  Or, I self report, which is more work and not something I signed up for.  I can't believe everyone who has an older system is just going to bend over and shell out 800 bucks.  This feels like someones responsibility and it's just been passed down to the bottom end of the ladder, i.e. the consumer.

Thoughts?  

There has to be a way to hardwire that to your home internet, no?

This would never have happened if we still used POTS.

Slippery said:

There has to be a way to hardwire that to your home internet, no?

The options seem to be:

1. Hardwire If available, the metering system may be able to be hardwired into the internet and avoid using cellular services going forward.
2. Modem Replacement Many metering systems may be able to have the modem replaced with an LTE-capable system.
3. Meter Replacement New meters with LTE-capable systems can be installed.
4. Switch to Manual Reporting- Reporting Requirements have been modified to allow SREC and SREC II systems 25kW direct current (DC) or smaller to manually report their production. The ability to manually report had previously been limited to systems that were 10kW or smaller. 

All of these options involve cost or effort or both.  

I have a CPAP machine that uses 3G, too. I wonder if it will be affected?

Do you have internet service in the shop where the equipment is? Seems like a $20 long patch cable would hardwire it. If you don't have hardwire internet but do have wireless in your shop a wireless bridge would do the trick for about $30. 
 

I think your provider would have known about the 3g sunset by 2019 and should have planned accordingly. But good luck getting them to agree on that point 

edit: it appears that the 3g sunset was not announced until 2019. So perhaps without a prophet on staff they could not have foreseen it. 

In reply to dculberson :

There appear to be some youtube videos out there with "hacks".  If push comes to shove I'll try that first.  The inverter is not anywhere near wifi nor a LAN, unfortunately.  

Should that have been the product designer/producers problem?  Absolutely!

Will they do a damn thing about it?  Hahahaha.  Welcome to the Internet of (rented) Things.  At least it won't keep it from generating power for you.  Agreed that dropping a network cable to it might be the best idea.  You might be able to set up a wireless bridge or maybe one of those power line adapters?  Never used those or solar so I don't know if that's a possibility. 

Even if it's a physical cat6 cable it sounds like you can just hook it up periodically and it'll play catch up for you?

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

Alternately, a standalone 4G cell modem could be procured for significantly cheaper. Put it in a little sealed box adjacent to your inverter and hard wire an ethernet patch cable. 

Also, online monitoring is important to ensure the system is healthy. A primary feature of solar edge systems is module level reporting & data. You can only get that info through their portal. SREC reporting aside, that alone is worth looking for a solution to the  (impending) connectivity issue.

In reply to Fupdiggity (Forum Supporter) :

Exactly.  If the system goes down I don't want to not know about it until I happen to check it again. 

Looking online it appears that hardwiring is the cheapest route.  I'd have to bury some cable, though, to get to the building with the inverter.  There also appears to be some question about getting access to the software to tell it to look at the Ethernet cable instead of the cell modem.  

I was curious if you could replace the modem yourself. 

This was the first search result. 

I wonder if you could use a wireless Ethernet Tx and Rx and save running the cable. 

Edit: Some further reading says you can plug into a WiFi extender.

From Here.

I did see there was some investigation into a Class Action Lawsuit about this.  Which, of course, means if there is any resolution, it'll be in 3 years, and I'll get a check for approximately $18.  

I would look at a wireless bridge like a Ubiquiti Nanobeam. Much easier than (properly) running cable, very reliable in my experience, should be future-proof because it's self-contained.

The 3G sunset is definitely going to affect a bunch of devices, including cars. Iirc, early Leafs are going through their second set of modem replacements. I'm not sure the manufacturer should be responsible for keeping up with changes in network tech especially when there are alternatives. That's the difference between purchasing your array versus leasing/renting it. We need to keep this in mind when purchasing things, it's one of the reasons I don't get excited about integrations like CarPlay. Eventually half of the tech moves on and the other half is left high and dry. 

Yeah, I'd agree with the other posts saying "just hardwire it"

My house and garage are about 100 feet apart, and I have a few things in the garage that need an ethernet connection. I played around with wireless bridges and they never seemed to work reliably, so now I have an eero mesh wifi network. It cost a few bucks, but wifi speeds all around the house and garage are way better. The killer app, though? Each network node has two ethernet ports on the bottom, and plugging things into them makes them show up on the network just like they're plugged into the base station. It's great for getting hardwired devices onto the network with zero fuss. 

Could you also skip a generation and go 5G for a longer service life? So in 4 years after you've paid yourself back for the modem upgrade when 4G is defunct, you don't have to pay again losing any benefit?  Just a thought.

How far is the inverter from the house? I needed internet access in my shop which is maybe 100' - 150' from the house, and ended up getting a pair of Ubiquiti Nano Station Locos. I mounted them in the attic of each building and roughly aimed them at each other and have had 100% trouble free internet in the shop since. I think they were like $50 - $70/ea. Point them at each other, connect one end to your router, the other end to the inverter, and you're good. They don't even need to be outside if the distance is short. (Like 100')

So, this is a bit tricky...

We have 2 electrical services on our property.  Service #1 is the main house, which just got solar this year.  To complicate things a bit, the panels for this are on the garage, call this Building 3, which is about 75 feet from the main house (Building 1)

Service #2 is on what we call the Guest House.  (Building 2).  It has the solar array installed back in 2019 affected by the sunset of 3G.

There is only internet service in Building 1, the main house, and it's got a basic router with wifi.  Wifi is good throughout the main house, but terrible anywhere outside. Building 2 is about 100 feet away from Building 1, and building 3 is about 75 feet from building 1 and 2.  Together the 3 buildings form a triangle.  

it would be nice, as a bonus, to get internet in buildings 2 and 3.  Building 2 definitely needs it for the solar inverter.  

Sounds like a perfect use case for this (or an equivalent flavor of mesh network, but I've had great luck with Eeros).

https://eero.com/shop/eero-6-plus

Buy that, plug one node into power in each building, plug existing internet into any of the nodes, done.  You'll have instant reliable fast internet everywhere. 

In reply to Tom Suddard :

That setup appears to be a mesh for a single building only.  Nowhere on that web site could I find a single mention of range, either.  

In reply to volvoclearinghouse :

Yeah, I wasn't sure they would work but I've had great luck using them for my house and garage. My house and garage nodes are just over 100' apart (and both inside buildings). YMMV/I'm not the one who makes/certifies them/etc. 

My exact models are a first-gen Eero pro and a second-gen normal Eero IIRC. 

In reply to Tom Suddard :

That's pretty great range then.  You'd think they'd advertise them as such.  

I'm using a TP Link mesh system between my shop and house. It works extremely well, but it recommends the units be within a 50' range. 

I've got the same thing as Tom, except using the TP-Link Deco mesh setup I bought from Costco 2 years ago.

Looking at the front of my stick-built house, my cable modem & Deco #1 is on the back of the house, bottom left against the exterior wall. 

Deco #2 is upstairs in the kids room at the opposite side (front right) of my house, probably 65-75' linear and 6 walls/floors away.

Deco #3 is probably close to 100' linear away from #2 in the garage, 2 exterior walls with a breezeway between them.

Anywhere in the house I will get ~860/36Mbps, and out in the garage that drops to around 520/28.   I get stable enough connection for streaming music anywhere within about 2-300' of the house (1 acreish).  I haven't done bandwidth tests out by the pool (60-100' away from Deco #1), but I can quite reliably do video meetings and such while playing lifeguard for the kids. 

So yeah, modern mesh networking equipment is quite nice.. Even the home gamer stuff.

My solar panels connect to the network via network wire tapped into Ethernet Over Power, using TP-Link EoP adapters that cost $25 each.