We provide practical, experience-backed guidance on solar, battery storage, and off-grid power systems for rural households and small organizations in the NC Sandhills. Not theoretical. We run a fully off-grid professional facility right here in Robbins — and we'll tell you exactly how it works.
In December 2022, two Duke Energy substations in Moore County were attacked and taken offline. Approximately 45,000 customers lost power — nearly the entire county — in freezing winter temperatures. Emergency orders were issued. Schools closed for days. The outage lasted more than 72 hours for most residents, and longer for some.
The event made visible something most households — rural or urban — had never had reason to consider: the grid is a single point of failure. When it goes down — whether from infrastructure attack, severe weather, or equipment failure — there is no fallback for households and businesses without independent power capability.
Energy resilience is not a fringe concern. It is a practical, documented need for Moore County residents and organizations. Moore Energy & Mapping exists in part to help the community understand and act on that need.
The best energy advice comes from people who've actually built the thing. The operational base for both BlueLens Analytics LLC and Moore Energy & Mapping is a fully off-grid studio, workshop, and professional geospatial data center located on a private property in Robbins, NC — with no Duke Energy connection of any kind.
The facility was hand-built by Coffey Carpentry & Joinery using timber milled directly from the property — longleaf and hardwood framing, maple floors, and finish joinery built to last. The solar and battery storage system was designed and installed in-house using professional-grade Victron Energy components, sized for continuous operation of workstations, servers, communications infrastructure, and shop tools.
When the grid goes down in Moore County, this facility doesn't notice.
The nonprofit community arm. Provides open-access mapping products, spatial data, and energy education for Moore County. The off-grid studio is the physical proof of what community energy resilience looks like in practice — and the source of the real-world expertise behind this page.
Professional geospatial intelligence, SAR remote sensing, and AI-assisted spatial analysis — operating 24/7 from this off-grid facility. High-performance workstations, storage systems, and communications infrastructure all run on solar and battery power. When Moore County's grid failed in December 2022, BlueLens didn't miss a beat.
bluelensanalytics.com →The studio and workshop building itself was designed and constructed by Coffey Carpentry & Joinery — timber framed using lumber milled from the property, with maple finish floors and hand-built joinery throughout. The building is as much a demonstration of craft as the solar system inside it is a demonstration of resilience engineering.
coffeyjoinery.com →"The question isn't whether your power will go out. In rural Moore County, it will. The question is whether you've built something that not only endures the storm, but makes the bad weather comfortable."
— Christopher Coffey · Robbins, NC
Not every household or organization needs or wants a fully off-grid setup. The right system depends on your goals, budget, and how much grid dependence you're willing to accept. Here's how the three main approaches compare for Moore County conditions.
You remain connected to the grid but maintain a battery bank that automatically takes over when the grid fails. Solar charges the batteries during the day. The most practical choice for most Moore County households.
Your system is entirely self-contained. Solar and batteries cover all loads. A generator provides backup on extended cloudy periods. What the Sandhills Studio runs on — and what makes complete sense for rural properties with service access costs or grid vulnerability.
Solar panels feed power directly to your home and export surplus to the grid. Lowest cost entry point, but provides zero resilience — when the grid goes down, this system shuts off automatically for safety. Offers no protection in a December 2022 scenario.
A complete off-grid or hybrid solar system has five core components that work together. Understanding what each one does — and why quality matters — will help you evaluate any system design or quote you receive.
The panels convert sunlight to DC electricity. For a household-scale system in Moore County, a 2,000–4,000W array is a reasonable starting point for a home with moderate consumption. Panels degrade slowly (0.5–1% per year) and typically carry 25-year production warranties. Monocrystalline panels are the current standard — higher efficiency in lower light conditions than older polycrystalline designs.
The Sandhills Studio runs 3,000W of panels — sufficient to fully recharge a 400Ah LFP bank in a good sun day and cover continuous professional loads simultaneously.
The charge controller sits between the solar panels and the battery bank. An MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) controller continuously adjusts its input to extract the maximum available power from the panels regardless of light conditions — capturing 20–30% more energy than older PWM-type controllers.
Size your charge controller to handle your full panel array with headroom. For a 3,000W array at 12V, you need substantial controller capacity — the Sandhills Studio splits the array across five controllers (two 100/50s on the higher-output SE and SW arrays, three 100/20s on supplemental strings). All communicate with the Cerbo GX for unified monitoring.
The battery bank stores energy for use when the sun isn't shining. LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate) is the current standard for off-grid and resilience applications — far superior to lead-acid in every meaningful way: 3–5× more cycle life (3,000–6,000 deep cycles vs. 300–500), 95%+ round-trip efficiency vs. 80% for lead-acid, usable to 80% depth of discharge vs. 50%, and no maintenance required.
The Sandhills Studio runs two LFP banks totaling 960Ah — a 400Ah primary bank and a 560Ah secondary, bridged by the Victron Orion-Tr Smart DC-DC charger. Combined usable capacity is approximately 11.5 kWh — enough to run professional workstations, high-draw computing, shop tools, lighting, and communications infrastructure through multiple overcast days. For a household, 10–20 kWh of storage (two to four times this) is a common resilience target.
The inverter converts DC battery power to AC for standard household loads. An inverter/charger combo — like the Victron Multiplus 2 — also accepts AC input from a generator or the grid to charge the batteries, and acts as an automatic transfer switch that shifts between power sources seamlessly. A quality pure sine wave inverter is essential for sensitive electronics, computers, and anything with a motor.
Size your inverter to your peak load — what you might run simultaneously at maximum. A 3,000W inverter covers most household scenarios. The Multiplus 2 also supports ESS (Energy Storage System) programming for sophisticated grid-interaction strategies.
A GX-type monitoring device connects all your Victron components via VE.Direct and VE.Bus cables, aggregates their data, and makes it available locally and remotely through the Victron VRM web portal. From a phone or browser, you can see real-time solar production, battery state of charge, load draw, grid status, and historical data — from anywhere with internet access.
For a serious installation, this is not optional. It's the difference between flying blind and having full situational awareness of your energy system. The Cerbo GX also enables control of compatible devices remotely — adjusting charge setpoints, inverter modes, or ESS strategies without physically touching the system.
Every system starts with the same question: how much power do you actually use? The answer drives every component decision downstream. Here's a simplified version of the process.
List every device you run, its wattage, and how many hours per day. Sum it up. watts × hours = Wh. A typical Moore County household with modest efficiency runs 5,000–15,000 Wh/day. A well-designed workshop or office can run 2,000–4,000 Wh/day.
Decide how many days of storage you want without solar input — typically 1.5–3 days for most applications. daily load × days ÷ 0.8 (DoD) = Wh of storage needed. Divide by your system voltage (12V, 24V, or 48V) to get Ah.
Moore County averages roughly 4.5–5 peak sun hours per day. daily load ÷ peak sun hours = watts of panel needed, with 20–25% added for system losses. A 5,000 Wh/day load needs roughly 1,400–1,800W of panels.
Your charge controller must handle the full panel array current at your system voltage. Your inverter must handle your peak simultaneous load — not your average, your worst-case. Add 25% headroom to both.
DC wiring at high amperage is where mistakes happen. Use appropriately sized cable (1/0 AWG or larger for high-current runs), hydraulic-crimped lugs, and fused distribution (Lynx Distributor or equivalent). Every conductor needs protection sized to the wire, not the load.
The Sandhills Studio's dual SE/SW ground arrays provide coverage across a wider solar window than a single south-facing array — the SE array catches morning production, the SW array extends into afternoon. Splitting the arrays across multiple SCCs also provides redundancy: no single controller failure takes the whole system down.
Built for Moore County conditions using 4.7 peak sun hours per day — the local average from NREL solar radiation data. Enter your numbers and get a baseline system size. Use it as a starting point, not a final design.
Typical home: 5,000–15,000 Wh | Workshop/office: 1,500–4,000 Wh
Recommended: 1.5–3 days | Off-grid: 3–5 days
12V: small systems. 24V: medium. 48V: large homes & commercial.
Common sizes: 200W, 300W, 400W, 500W
ASSUMPTIONS: LFP battery at 80% depth of discharge · 25% system loss factor (wiring, controller, inverter) · 4.7 peak sun hours/day (Robbins, NC NREL average) · No temperature derating. Results are estimates for planning purposes. Consult a certified solar installer for final design.
These organizations and tools provide reliable information on solar incentives, system design, and energy planning for North Carolina households and small organizations.
NC State University center tracking state and federal solar incentives, net metering policy, and clean energy programs available to NC residents.
nccleantech.ncsu.edu →The authoritative database for solar and renewable energy incentives at the federal, state, and utility level. Find every program available in Moore County.
dsireusa.org →The 30% federal solar investment tax credit (ITC) applies to residential solar and battery storage systems. IRS Form 5695 is how you claim it. Consult your tax advisor.
IRS Form 5695 →Free remote monitoring platform for Victron-based systems. If you build with Victron components and a Cerbo GX, your system data is accessible from any browser — permanently and for free.
vrm.victronenergy.com →National Renewable Energy Laboratory tool for estimating solar production at any location. Enter your address and array specs to get monthly production estimates for Moore County conditions.
pvwatts.nrel.gov →The regulatory body overseeing Duke Energy Carolinas in Moore County. Net metering rules, interconnection standards, and rate cases are all public record here.
ncuc.net →We're not selling anything. If you're a Moore County resident or organization thinking about solar, battery storage, or off-grid resilience and want a straight conversation about it — reach out.