So, imagine yourself with a pretty state of the art (but small) solar power setup- 4000 watt pure sine inverter running off a 24v battery bank supported by 1500 watts of solar panels. That’s what I have. I thus have available 24v DC, 120 and 240v AC(single phase) with a maximum power surge of 5850 watts. Inrush surges on a 2hp motor can hit 9000 watts, but most of the machines in this semi professional wood+ blacksmith shop want 1.5 hp at least. Efficiency is paramount- every watt counts.
If it were you would you:
A: Go DC direct somehow, using 24v DC? Maybe a buck boost transformer?
B: Stick with VFD’s to eliminate inrush surges on 1.5-2hp machines? If so, for max efficiency, should the motors be 240v or 3ph with a 240v input?
C: Spend $180,000 to get grid power (HAHA…)
D: Do something else altogether?
My fav'rite trick - tough places to git at for service - is to use oversized gen heads for a Diesel's rated motor power, or oversized inverters for a battr'y plant. Less likely to BBQ them.
Dog sled, float plane or parachute drop from a dirigible, your cheap option is to double the inverter rating. The better ones are already designed for syncing to be paralleled-up. Bit of luck, you add-on rather than replace?
Now you also have fall-back redundancy / easier scheduled maintenance, wotever woven right into the deal.
Then add a couple of dual-duty "starter" rated marine/rv batteries to the otherwise slow discharge but DEEPER discharge battery plant. Or so we might presume you'd be using? Same again, add-on, not replace.
May have to juggle charger control, but you get your
starting surge covered, and once again more depth if something goes pear-shaped in between dirigible, dog sled, or icebreaker runs.
Bit of a nuisance adding VFD's for motors that small? Most especially if they are single-phase, would need swapped-out for 3-Phase. Got 3-Phase, yah could do inverter-foo once instead of VFD-foo, many.
Inexpensive VFD don't have the best longevity, either. Inverters are the better bet for durability.
With stouter inverters in place, you can also add-on to the collector array and battery plant as budget permits.
Batteries are wotever they are.
Planning to skip Edisons and go from ignorant lead-acid to "saltwater" tech, but I don't have temps as cold as as to freeze my alaskaoff.
Can't see the point in going after low mass in a fixed-plant battery. Lit-me-ums are for mobility needful goods.
Old Lady Earth is strong enough to hold up a glacier or a forest - even a mountain or three, after all. I could hope to set a saltwater battery plant into a hole in the back garden much as one would have done with a septic tank I do NOT need?
NB: I don't have to dog-sled in diesel. I'm ON good mains.
Even so. Those "in the know" say that for STABLE machine-tool operation at a 10 KW load? My 10 KVA Diesel should be as much as a 100 KVA.
Sanity check sez 2:1 minimum, four or five to one, practical, and just not EXPECT really high-grade stability.
Similar deal, your plant.
As presently spec'ed for 4 KW, your tool operation "quality" can be expected to start tailing off at ONE KW and degrade progressively.
Numbers?
Numbers are a snapshot.
Life is the FULL MOTION video. Old third-world Telco and laterite and canvas tent field MIL-SPEC gut sez you got about HALF the power you are actually going to need.
Right about what I'd call as Goldilocks size just for running my fridge-freezers, "with out fail", IOW.
PS: Me late Dad had a significant hand, ALCAN highway, 1942. Seems to me he said Alaska has these long spells it don't git dark atall. And then another spell where it don't get LIGHT? Old workmate, ACS / ALASCOM vet, SIG-C Master Sgt. "Tanana Charlie" Wilson confirmed it. Gets dark. Stays dark for a spell.
Solar? Year-round?
B'lieve I'd want fired steam run off a Methane "digester". Mosquito-biomass fueled part year, wood waste the other.
Mosquitos still run about the length of a Hudson's Bay double-bitted axe handle up there? Between the eyes?
'Bout the same power as a Vespa motor scooter, but too much like work to get 'em onto a treadmill to work as pairs.