Huh? Energy Prices Are Going Down?
How much of that quarterly cheque you cut to your local electricity supplier is actually paying for the energy you use? According to a new scathing news story from ABC and confirmed with data from the Federal Treasury, under half. Surprisingly, 51% of your monthly payment is, in fact, going to fund the unnecessary rebuilding of a now bloated Australian power grid. [Read more…]
This post comes courtesy of Trevor Berrill. Trevor is Principal of Solaris Sustainable Homes and is a 30 year veteran of both renewable energy and energy efficiency. It is a honour to have him contribute to this humble blog. Here Trevor describes how a good solar installer should install solar panels to a metal roof and how bad installers, in a hurry can do the wrong thing and leave you with a leaky roof!
Over to you Trevor.
Holier than thou? How to avoid leaks in the roof! [Read more…]
Should Aussies follow the American way when it comes to solar leasing?
Are Americans are getting their butts handed to them with long-term solar leasing? And what can us Aussies do to come out ahead?
It seems the suits perched in the top floor offices on Wall-Street are finally taking notice of solar energy. And that could spell bad news for American consumers.
American energy firms like SolarCity, a growing solar-energy giant based out of California, have been offering long-term, relatively affordable leasing arrangements to consumers for years; either by financing the installation of panels or charging users by the kilowatt-hour and selling the remaining power back to the grid.
But those arrangements are about to get a whole lot more expensive now that they, and firms like them, are going public. Why? Because their shareholders, many of them massive hedge funds and banks, are demanding an American-sized profit which can only be attained through skyrocketing costs to consumers. [Read more…]
Recent research by the Australian Solar Council shows that the average Aussie that has installed solar has seen an average 65% reduction in their power bills. And to pre-empt a gazillion comments – yes – this is achievable with a crappy Feed-In -Tariff too!
They have produced a great infographic which sums up most of the benefits of solar that the anti solar brigade wish weren’t true. Here it is:
The joys of solar power. Cue solar nark’s teeth gnashing!
As a true solar geek, I can’t think of anything better to do at 7:30 on a Friday evening, than log in to my solar panel monitoring system. While most folks are settling down to Friday Night Footy, you’ll find me checking out how much power my 6kW of micro inverter solar panels are producing as the last rays of evening sun scatter across my roof.
As I logged in tonight to see a respectable 1.2kW being pumped out, I noticed that the monitoring system was providing a great example of one of the benefits of microinverter technology.
If you have a gander at the live monitoring screenshot below you’ll see that I’ve highlighted the position of my wood burner’s flue and the approximate shadow it casts as the sun goes down.
The red circle is my flue. I’ve drawn on its 7:30pm shadow.
China win #1 solar panel for 2013 (although US firm Sunpower was robbed!)
Note: this post was written in 2014 and is out-of-date. To get my latest recommended solar panel brands please read my constantly updated Solar 101 Guide.
Hot off the German Press: industry bible Photon Magazine has announced the winners of its 2013 solar panel test. Basically, a bunch of Germans in white coats mount a gazillion solar panels in a field in Germany and measure their power output over 12 months.
At this point, I must point out that 3 separate Sunpower models would have won all of the top 3 spots, but they had to remove them from the table due to a testing machine malfunction…so it is by no means a totally fair test. But it is useful to see which brands perform well despite this rare cock up from our German friends.
So here here are the top 20 for 2013: [Read more…]
Some Chinese panels are top quality. But which ones?
A lot of people are wary of Chinese solar panels. China doesn’t exactly cover itself in glory with some of the low quality junk it manufactures. But, as I have said many times before, China also produces some fantastic quality stuff.
Need examples? I bet the device you are reading this blog on was made in the People’s Republic. The Macbook Pro I am writing it on certainly was and it is impeccably put together (the laptop – not the blog!). [Read more…]
I’ve had a lot of people ask me about the pros and cons of microinverters recently. I have written a long and detailed description of microinverters, but for those who would rather learn about them without ploughing through 1000 words of my ramblings (and who can blame you!) I created this infographic about micro inverters vs string inverters. Hope you like it 🙂
Micro inverters vs. String Inverters (AKA Central Inverters)
On 26th Nov my microinverter monitoring showed 45kWh generated. Woo Hoo!
Microinverters… In my experience, Aussie solar installers either love ’em or hate ’em. Seriously! I honestly don’t think I’ve talked to an installer that is indifferent to them.
There are a hell of a lot of companies offering cheap solar panels right now, and as with all free markets, that is driving down the prices and the margins of solar power installers and suppliers.
The question I get asked the most is this:
“How do I tell if this deal from XYZ solar (which is heaps cheaper than anyone who quoted through your site) is too good to be true?”
So here’s your answer: [Read more…]
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