Quotes and system size

[Mike90250]

If you go the aluminum wire route ( I did for a 980' run ) be sure when you order the wire, that it be continuous, and not two 500' pieces spliced together on the reel !!

[foggysail]

If I faced a power transfer of 500 + feet, I surely would look into a pair of transformers, one for the source and the other located at the load. The higher you can get that distributed power's voltage, the less you have to worry over power loss distributing it. As to the wiring between the source and the load, CAUTION is needed here especially depending on how high you can distribute the voltage.

[Will792]

I am afraid we overwhelmed OP with information. Based on his question he is looking to hire a company to do design and installation and was trying to understand wide price range of proposals. Most residential PV installation companies do not do complex designs to maintain P/L for each project. Most use one vendor for panels, inverters and mounting.

[bcroe]

If I faced a power transfer of 500 + feet, I surely would look into a pair of transformers, one for the source and the other located at the load. The higher you can get that distributed power's voltage, the less you have to worry over power loss distributing it. As to the wiring between the source and the load, CAUTION is needed here especially depending on how high you can distribute the voltage.

I did not seriously consider transformers for the AC runs (cannot be used
on the DC) for several reasons. Those transformers must be large enough
to handle the inverters, and both will consume not only max power losses,
but standby losses 24/7 even though the array may be shut down. Instead
$650 for 300 feet of aluminum Triplex solved my problem. Bruce Roe

[foggysail]

Bruce--- whatever works!