The short answer
Yes, keep it. With a battery and an inverter that can manage a generator, solar and the battery carry most of the load, and the generator starts only when the battery runs low or the load is too big. It runs far less, so you spend less on fuel and servicing, and you still have it for long outages.
Generator as a last resort
Solar runs the load during the day and fills the battery. The battery carries the night. The generator starts automatically only when the battery runs low or the load is more than the system can supply, then stops when it's no longer needed.
What it saves
- Fewer running hours, so less diesel
- Longer gaps between services
- Quieter nights, with the generator off most of the time
- Backup kept for long outages and cloudy spells
What it needs
An inverter with a generator input, set up to start and stop it, and a battery sized to carry the night. On grid-connected sites, the generator becomes backup for outages; on off-grid sites, it covers long cloudy stretches.
Solar and batteries for farms
