Posts By Ronald Brakels, Author & Fact-Checker At SolarQuotes

You Won’t Believe How Dumb The NSW Government’s New Battery Calculator Is

nsw government solar battery calculator

The new NSW solar & battery calculator is so misleading it’s not funny.

The NSW Government’s Solar Battery Calculator is up and running. 

This would only be a good thing if it was up and running out the door, never to be seen again.

It had one job to do — inform NSW families if a home battery makes financial sense for them — and it fails miserably.  Worse, it fails in exactly the wrong direction. [Read more…]

NSW Government Publishes Pernicious 71-Page Battery Guide

NSW Home Solar Battery Guide 2020.

A happy family with their 4.8 kWh of Enphase AC batteries. These 4 batteries will cost about $10,000 installed and store about $1.44 of solar electricity.

Guess what! You can now read another tax-payer funded document that does more harm than good. 

The NSW Government has published the NSW Home Solar Battery Guide 2020.  It’s supposed to help the people of NSW and Australia decide if getting batteries is right for them.

I have read the report and have concluded that it is insane. [Read more…]

LeTID Update: Unlikely To Become The Problem Many Feared

Solar panels and LeTID issues - update

LeTID: Limited in new PERC panels from reputable manufacturers and probably not a disaster for old ones.

Fourteen months ago I wrote about a type of solar panel degradation called LeTID.  This is short for Light and elevated Temperature Induced Deterioration.  It’s also Norwegian for “laugh time” which is what I think they called the Joker movie over there. [Read more…]

My ACCC Submission: The CEC Approved Retailer Scheme Is Not Voluntary & Is Anti-Competitive

ACCC - CEC Approved Solar Retailer Scheme

If you want to sell residential solar in Victoria or batteries in SA, CEC Approved Solar Retailer membership is de-facto mandatory.

The Australian Competition And Consumer Commission — ACCC for short — is seeking submissions on whether or not the Clean Energy Council’s Approved Solar Retailer scheme should be renewed. [Read more…]

2020 PV Reliability Scorecard: Astronergy, Canadian, Longi & REC Do Well

PVEL 2020 PV Module Reliability Scorecard

Astronergy, Canadian, Longi, & REC Do Well but PID Still A Problem

PV Evolution Labs, or PVEL for short, has published their 2020 PV Module Reliability Scorecard.  This annual report reveals the Top Performers from their latest round of solar panel testing.  The information given is limited.  We’re only told which panels suffered little deterioration from testing. PVEL do not reveal which performed poorly.  They do not even reveal all the panels that were tested.  But it’s still useful to know which did well.

If you buy a solar panel that was a Top Performer in all four tests you can be confident it’s going to last for decades. [Read more…]

Why Have Home Battery Forecasts Been Staggeringly Wrong For Years?

Home battery uptake forecasts

Honey, I shrunk the battery market

When I was a kid, the past wrote checks for the future reality couldn’t cash.  I never got a flying car, let alone a jetpack, and a picture book I had promised me the 2020 Olympics would be on the moon.  Well, it’s 2020 now and we don’t even have an Olympics, let alone a moon colony to hold it in. [Read more…]

Cuts To Electricity Prices And Feed-in Tariffs From July Will Extend Solar Payback

Electricity price and solar feed in tariff reductions

COVID-19 has contributed to wholesale electricity prices cuts, which should be reflected in your power bills from July.

The coronavirus has killed more than 340,000 people worldwide and taken a big bite out of economic activity.  Fortunately, Australia’s death toll has been low thanks to the effective response from medical professionals.

While we’ve gotten off lightly with regard to lives lost, there has been a sizable economic downturn.  This has caused wholesale electricity prices to drop, which you should see reflected your bills from July.  Unless you’re in Western Australia. [Read more…]

SA Home Battery Scheme’s New Calculator Gives Dismal Results (If You Can Find It)

SA Home Battery Scheme calculator

The SA Government commissioned a calculator for their home battery scheme. It shows that, for most homes, even subsidised solar batteries don’t add up yet. So they buried it on their website.

Finally, after one and a half years, the South Australian Home Battery scheme has added a battery calculator to their site. [Read more…]

The Grid Wants To Control Your Solar Inverter — But Only For Good, Not Evil

Solar inverter control

Thanks to a deficit of trust in government, people are rightly worried when they hear that ‘the government wants to be able to switch off their solar systems’.

On the 30th of April the AEMO or — as it’s known by the long-winded — Australian Energy Market Operator, published a significant report called Renewable Integration Study 1.  A few people read the summary and then wrote articles on how the grid wants to take control of people’s solar inverters; switching them on and off as they desire. [Read more…]

Michael Moore Attacks Renewable Industry By Detonating His Own Credibility

Planet Of The Humans review

Planet Of The Humans:  Earth Day documentary by Jeff Gibbs and promoted by Michael Moore. It’s zero stars from me in this review.

Two days ago I watched a documentary called Planet of the Humans that was released on Earth Day on April 22.  It’s by Jeff Gibbs and promoted by Michael Moore, who was its executive producer. [Read more…]

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