Solar Quotes Blog

Will Abbott take Spain’s lead and start taxing solar battery storage?

tony abbott with wind turbines

The government’s war on renewables went into overdrive this week. The nation shook its collective head in disbelief as we heard the prime minister say to Alan Jones, notorious shock jock and confirmed anti-renewable energy advocate, that wind energy farms were “visually awful”.

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Elon Musk Announces Powerwall Upgrade Before It Is Even Released

elon musk

Earlier today, in the 2015 Tesla Motors shareholder meeting Elon Musk announced that the Powerwall will be upgraded from 2kW to 5kW steady power output (and up to 7kW peak) and keep the same price. He said that they were responding to criticism that the original 2kW was not enough to cope with the peak power […]

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Time to ignite an African solar power revolution

A recent World Energy Outlook report found that over two-thirds of people in Africa live without electricity, a shocking statistic that costs the continent in health; investment, pollution and education opportunities. This lack of energy infrastructure has stalled GDP growth across the continent and underlined the need for an African solar power revolution to fill the […]

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Solar Battery Storage Explained [Infographic]

infographic explaining solar battery storage

I’ve written about hybrid solar and off grid solar systems before, but Tesla’s latest announcement about its new PowerWall battery is a real game changer for solar battery storage affordability – Morgan Stanley has a report that attests to this in greater detail. For those of you that don’t feel like slogging through an in-depth […]

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From flaky to flavour of the month: Big ass power companies embrace solar

u turn sign in front of solar power and cooling towers

Has anyone else noticed the changing attitude of utilities to solar power? Until recently all you could hear in the regular announcements from the fossil fuel companies’ board rooms was that renewable power was “flaky” and dependent on “when the sun shines, when the wind blows…etc”. You know the drill. Oh but how times change. […]

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Here comes the sun: Saudi oil minister flags end of fossil fuels

an oil barrel and a solar panel

When the Saudi oil minister says his country will switch to solar you know the jig is up for fossil fuels. Such a defining moment occurred in Paris this week when Reuters, the Financial Times and The Guardian all reported Minister Ali Al-Naimi as admitting the days of oil exports in his country were limited. […]

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Tesla Powerwall vs. AGL’s PowerLegato

a powerwall and a powerlegato

So AGL have thrown their hat into the solar battery storage ring with the AUO PowerLegato manufactured by Taiwanese Solar and Electronic conglomerate, AU Optronics. So how do they compare on specs?

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The cheap & cheerful way to add a Tesla Powerwall to your exisiting solar system?

block diagram

Note: The Tesla Powerwall 1 was released after this post and required a separate Battery Inverter and the existing solar inverter. The Powerwall 1 has since been superseded by the Powerwall 2, which has an integrated Battery Inverter – and AC couples to a solar inverter. —– [Note: This blog post is an educated guess […]

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Did solar energy get a leg up in the budget?

solar panels

The Treasurer’s annual allocating of the shekels has come and gone and renewable energy fans are asking about solar energy in the Budget. How did we fare? Were we the subject of further cutbacks, maulings and downgradings as part of this federal government’s campaign against all things renewable? Well yes and no is the best […]

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Powerwall Vs. Lead Acid Batteries. Which is best for off grid?

powerwall and a lead acid battery

I recently wrote about how my parents could save money by going off-grid in sub-tropical Queensland under close to best case conditions, and how it made no sense at all for them to do this as the return from having grid connected rooftop solar is so much better. The recently announced Tesla Powerwall doesn’t change this. […]

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