If you are not allowed to export any of your solar electricity, is it still worth getting panels?
Some people in Australia can’t export solar electricity to the grid. This is because their local Distributed Network Service Provider (DNSP) has export limited their home to zero kilowatts. While this isn’t common — yet — it is a tragedy wrapped in personal economic pain. [Read more…]
How much can you save over 10 years by choosing a higher efficiency solar inverter?
A solar inverter’s efficiency determines how much solar electricity will be lost on the short journey from your solar panels to your switchboard.
The efficiency of popular Australian residential solar inverters varies from 96.5% to 98%. Higher efficiency lets a home squeeze more kilowatt-hours of generation out of its solar power system. [Read more…]
The MIL-Solar Eclipse 5 kW inverter. Made in Australia and tough as a Toowoombian.
Are you in the market for a grid-tied 5 kilowatt solar inverter? In that case there’s plenty of choice. I can think of nine brands I can recommend off the top of my head, but every single one of them is manufactured overseas. [Read more…]
A few years ago it was common to hear “Grids Can’t Handle More Than 20% Renewables”. South Australia (among others) would beg to differ.
I was talking to Finn on Sunday — electronically because computer viruses are less of a threat than biological ones these days — and I mentioned South Australia was producing much more electricity from renewables than it was consuming and that the surplus was being exported to Victoria. There’s nothing unusual about this, especially on weekends, but it prompted Finn to ask… [Read more…]
A battery and a sponge. See what I did there?
Update 9th April 2020: South Australia Power Networks has informed us the Solar Sponge tariff is available now for people with smart meters, but very few electricity retailers are offering it.1 It was to become standard on the 1st of July, but this may be delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
In October 2019 South Australia Power Networks (SAPN) announced they would introduce a new “Solar Sponge” tariff promising electricity in the middle of the day at one quarter their usual rate. As a result, some people have claimed this will let a battery pay for itself, even if the home doesn’t have solar panels. Are they nuts? Not completely. [Read more…]
Copper filled grooves in a piece of ancient Egyptian obsidian. (Image: The Irish Times)
A set of papers published in the International Journal of Antiquity last month has revealed ancient Egyptians may have had access to a technology that, in our modern world, has only taken off over the last few decades. [Read more…]
Have solar panel optimiser manufacturers been too optimistic in their performance claims? A Danish study says optimisers can be the opposite of optimal.
Solar systems hate shade. They really do. Sometimes they talk to me in my dreams and it’s always their number one complaint, right after being pooped on by birds. But these two problems are related — they hate bird poop because it shades their solar cells. [Read more…]
If you own a solar business, the government has announced a surprisingly generous support package for small/medium businesses. Here’s what you need to know.
On March 12th, in response to the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus and bushfires, the Australian Government announced a $17.6 billion economic stimulus. Then, at some point in the last week, they must have spoken to someone in the Treasury who actually knows what’s going on, because they then increased it by an order of magnitude to $189 billion. [Read more…]
It’s a great time to buy commercial solar power to slash your energy bills. And the new $150,000 instant asset write-off can reduce your tax bill too.
Due to the economic hit from the coronavirus COVID-19 and bushfire disasters, the Federal Government has announced a $17.6 billion economic stimulus. It includes tax deduction incentives that make commercial solar power — and other investments — even more attractive. [Read more…]
Electric cars beat hybrids on emissions thanks to additional rooftop solar power
Pop Quiz: Which results in greater CO2 per kilometre? An all electric car (EV) or a fuel efficient hybrid?
Answer: An electric car charged from the Australian grid will result in around twice the emissions per kilometre driven. [Read more…]
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