Guide
Panels without a battery only help while the sun and the load overlap. Together they remove the fuel problem entirely.
Photovoltaic panels produce DC electricity whenever there is light. The battery stores whatever the site is not using at that moment. The inverter supplies the site from panels, from the battery, or from both, according to what the load needs.
At night or in poor conditions, the site runs entirely from the battery. The following day, the array replaces what was used. If daily generation matches or exceeds daily consumption, the cycle repeats indefinitely with no other energy source involved.
The most common sizing error is starting from array size. The correct starting point is daily energy use in kWh, because that is what the array has to replace and what the battery has to carry overnight.
Once you know daily kWh, two constraints follow. The battery must hold enough usable energy to cover the hours the array is not producing, plus margin for a poor day. The array must produce at least the daily energy use during the hours it generates, in the worst month you intend to operate.
Then check power separately: the inverter still has to cover your largest simultaneous load, which has nothing to do with either the panels or the pack. See how to size a BESS.
| Generator | Solar + storage | |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel logistics | Continuous requirement | None |
| Running cost | Fuel, labour, servicing | Effectively zero |
| Noise | 65–85 dB | Silent |
| Emissions | Exhaust and CO | None |
| Weather dependence | None | Yes — sizing must allow for poor days |
| Up-front cost | Lower | Higher |
| Unlimited duration | While fuel is supplied | While generation meets consumption |
Solar plus storage is weather-dependent by definition. Sizing for the worst month handles most of it, but on a critical load a small generator retained for exceptional conditions is cheap insurance — and if it is sized for recharge duty rather than site peak, it can be a very small one.
Questions answered
Yes. The PulseTrek solar upgrade kit allows any trailer model to recharge from photovoltaic panels, extending runtime indefinitely where daily load sits within the array's daily output.
Start from daily energy use in kWh. The battery must cover the hours the array is not producing; the array must replace that energy during the hours it does, in the worst month you plan to operate.
For low to moderate continuous loads at remote sites, usually yes, because there is no fuel logistics at all. For very high loads or extended poor generation, a hybrid arrangement remains more robust.
Get in touch
Tell us the site, the load and the runtime you need. Our Austin engineering team comes back with a configuration, a runtime estimate and a price.
+1 512-316-7347
info@pulsar.industries
WhatsApp +1 512-585-8293
