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

DNV-GL’s 2018 Scorecard Results — Longi, REC, & Suntech Only Residential Solar Panels To Pass All Tests

June 25, 2018 2024-01-25T10:33:59 by 4 Comments
DNV-GL solar panel reliability scorecard 2018

Those nice people at DNV-GL have done another year’s worth of panel torture testing. Here is a summary of the results.

Over the past 4 years the Norwegian company, DNV-GL, has performed annual tests on solar panels and released a report on their performance.  Their latest one, the 2018 PV Module Reliability Scorecard is now available.  The good news is solar panel reliability looks as though it is continuing to improve.  If you buy now you are more likely than ever to get panels that will last for decades without failing and with only minimal deterioration in output. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Panels

How Norwegian are REC Solar Panels? And Does It Matter?

June 20, 2018 2018-06-20T14:21:57 by 9 Comments
REC solar panels

Some people are getting their knickers in a twist over whether REC solar panels are European or Asian.

I’ve had a request to clear up the question of whether REC is a European or Asian company. The confusion arises because although the company was founded in Norway and has its headquarters there, it manufactures REC solar panels in Singapore and is owned by a Chinese corporation.

I have looked into this topic exhaustively and I can state the answer to the question of whether REC is European or Asian is — Yes.

Yes — it is European or Asian. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Panels

Worrisome Results From Canberra’s Battery Test Centre

June 13, 2018 2025-04-02T07:33:12 by 31 Comments
Lithium-ion Battery Test Centre

Canberra’s Battery Test Centre has been going a couple of years now. What do the results so far tell us about the state of the home battery market?

I am very happy.  I just found out there is a battery testing centre in Canberra.  Who would have thought there would be something useful in Canberra?  Besides, of course, for the Federal Government and the bureaucracy that’s necessary for the functioning of a modern representative democracy.1 [Read more…]

Filed Under: Battery Storage

New Tesla Powerwall 2 Orders Won’t Arrive Until “Early 2019”.

June 13, 2018 2018-06-13T14:10:46 by 18 Comments

Tesla Powerwall 2 delay

If you order a Tesla Powerwall 2 home battery system, according to a Tesla spokesperson, you will now have to wait until early next year to have it delivered.  This means the supply of Powerwalls for new Australian orders will be halted for at least 7 months.  If these turn out to be Tesla months then your guess as to when they will be available is as good as mine. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Battery Storage

Landlord Energy — Providing Solar For Commercial Tenants

June 4, 2018 2021-02-10T13:33:30 by 5 Comments

Landlord Energy - Commercial Solar

If you are a business owner there’s an excellent chance you’re not happy with cost of grid electricity and would love to lower your bills with rooftop solar.  Unfortunately, there’s also an excellent chance you rent your business premises and so don’t have much of an incentive to install solar. After all you can’t take it with you when you leave. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Commercial Solar

New Solar Homes Robbed Of Choice In ACT: Demand Or Time-of-Use Tariffs Only

May 30, 2018 2021-02-10T13:05:44 by 22 Comments
rock or hard place? Electricity tariffs in Canberra

If you live in ACT and install solar – you are forced to choose between 2 not very great electricity tariffs.

If you are getting a new house built or having solar power installed in the ACT I have some bad news.  You will lose the ability to freely choose between electricity plans. You will no longer be able to select a standard tariff; which is usually best for solar households.  Instead you will be forced on to either a time-of-use tariff or a demand tariff. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Electricity Prices

Half Cut, Split-Cell Solar Panels: Higher Efficiency & Better Shade Tolerance

May 24, 2018 2023-08-01T14:25:51 by 13 Comments
half-cut panel and installer

Don’t let a half-cut solar installer install your half-cut (AKA split-cell) solar panels.

Silicon solar cells of the type now used for almost every residential solar installation in Australia have been around for a long time.  They are 64 years old.  This makes them the same age as nuclear power generation.  They’ve come a long way since they were first made at Bell Labs in the United States.  Originally they were only able to convert around 6% of the energy in sunlight into electrical energy but now the most efficient solar panels on the market manage 22%.

Unfortunately, the days of large improvements in efficiency have long been over.  Now we only see small incremental improvements and one of these in use that will be much more common in the future are panels that use half-cut solar cells. These panels are known as both half-cut and split-cell solar panels. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Panels

“Power Of Choice” Pushes Costs Onto Electricity Consumers

May 23, 2018 2018-06-20T14:37:08 by 12 Comments

Power Of Choice - Electricity Meters
Last week I wrote about the “Power of Choice” reforms that put electricity retailers in charge of electricity meters.

Today I’m writing how Power of Choice reforms harm the consumer by stealing the most valuable thing you possess: your time on this Earth. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Electricity Prices

Power Of Choice Meter Reforms Result In Powerful Conflicts Of Interest

May 17, 2018 2021-02-10T13:40:22 by 19 Comments
electricity meter

A new scheme called “The Power Of Choice” has moved responsibility for meters to the retailers.

On the first of December 2017 responsibility for electricity meters in the National Energy Market or NEM changed hands1.  The NEM is a National Electricity Market that apparently thinks Western Australia and the Northern Territory are other countries because they’re not included.

The job of installing and maintaining electricity meters was taken from Distributed Network Service Providers or DNSPs and given to Electricity Retailers.  In other words, it was taken from the people who distribute electricity from long distance transmission lines to homes and businesses and given to the people who bill you for electricity. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Policy

Arvio Supercapacitor Energy Storage — Powerful Enough To Beat Batteries At Their Own Game?

May 15, 2018 2025-05-08T13:39:48 by 63 Comments
super capacitor man - Arvio Kilowatt Labs Sirius

Will Super Capacitor Energy Storage Save The World?

 

Note from Finn: People have asked me if I would recommend buying a ‘super capacitor’ over a conventional battery. My short answer is no. Personally I think the technology is too new to consider it in a residential application. As Ronald says at the end of the post: “…they are a new thing and sometimes new things have problems that aren’t apparent at first.”  Buyer beware.

 

Australian company Arvio is now selling a supercapacitor energy storage module.  If you go to their site you can see the Kilowatt Labs Sirius module that stores 3.55 kilowatt-hours of electricity on sale for $4,950 including GST – here’s how it looks: [Read more…]

Filed Under: Battery Storage
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