Can I reduce solar panel RFI in my shack?

[dimab]

My neighbor put in solar panels, and it's completely saturating my reception on several bands, including 20M, 15M, etc, and the bands are useless.
Once the sun goes down, band clears right up. I've narrowed it down to the solar, nothing else has changed. When panels are not generating power, my reception is great on SSB and FT8, across the globe.
I'm running an EFHW from myatennas, I've got a common mode choke as well, with an IC-7300. I even installed an 'rfi kit' from Palomar Engineers to knock down any other RFI from power cables, and usb cables. Still the solar install wreaks havoc. I've read and read, and the real answer seems to be stopping this at the panels, but that's not possible. I see a huge spike on the waterfall every 200 KHz for several megahertz plus and minus.
Do you guys have any ideas on anything I can do to reduce the RFI?
I attached a screenshot from the waterfall during the day with the RFI, and the waterfall in evening hours

 

[AB5ID]

Kicking Solar inverter noise in the A$$ with noise cancelling - YouTube

Antenna phasing & noise cancelling- DX Engineering

 

[wtp]

tarps ?

 

[prcguy]

You have to kill the noise at the AC inverters on the solar panels. Most new solar installations have many small DC to AC inverters on the roof and these are known to be the noise makers. You can contact the solar company and complain and also state they are obviously not compliant with FCC Part 15 and other rules. Ask them what THEY can do do resolve the noise first. It usually involves installing ferrite cores at the input and output of each inverter and that will usually bring the noise down to acceptable levels.

If the solar company is not friendly then tell them you will be on the phone with the FCC next and their entire solar install could be shut down by the FCC if things escalate. At that point you call, email and fax the FCC on a daily or hourly basis until they send a letter to the home owner who has the solar noise maker and the letter should say they must respond back to the FCC with some information within a certain time frame. Then you will have their attention and a path to noise free reception.

 

[FKimble]

Have you talked to your neighbor? I would think since he paid for the panels, he needs to call the installer and get them involved. I bet your neighbor is their first install that was near enough to a HAM to cause serious problems.

Frank

 

[K6GBW]

I'd be curious what brand / maker those microinverters are. I just inked the deal to get solar at my house and I made it very clear that I couldn't tolerate excessive noise being generated. They swore to me that they could handle that. Apparently, the newer inverters are really pretty good about noise but some of the older ones can be awful. Certain brands are also better than others. So whatever brand is causing the havoc please let us know. I'm in a high noise environment anyway so I've become very familiar with Palomar Engineers chokes and noise suppression products. I'm sure I'll probably be adding some more once this install is done.

 

[GlobalNorth]

Have you talked to your neighbor? I would think since he paid for the panels, he needs to call the installer and get them involved. I bet your neighbor is their first install that was near enough to a HAM to cause serious problems.

Around here, solar panel leasing is the rage for some. Lots of rental homes have them since the property owner doesn't have to pay for the maintenance, repairs, or damages.

Just another fly in the ointment, as it were.

 

[GlobalNorth]

tarps ?

This is a bit more effective...

 

[bearcatrp]

Glad you posted about solar panels. Didn’t know about this. My new RV has 2 solar panels on the roof. Will have to try my handhelds receivers next time out.

 

[wtp]

because there is no sun where it is now ?

just being a smart donkey...

 

[prcguy]

Solar panels don't make any RFI or noise. Some 12V systems can make noise from a switching solar charger like MPPT but most are quiet. Big 120VAC systems usually make a lot of noise from the switching inverters on the roof and newer systems can have lots of them on the roof.

Glad you posted about solar panels. Didn’t know about this. My new RV has 2 solar panels on the roof. Will have to try my handhelds receivers next time out.