Solar Quotes Blog

Germany takes knife to solar subsidies

Solar Power in Germany

From manufacturing quality cars to leading the continent in economic policy, Germany is often considered Europe’s “go to” country. The “engine room” of European manufacturing also is well out in front of its neighbours in renewable energy policy, with its clear and consistent support for solar installation legendary.

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Learn About The Adelaide Solar Cities Project

If you live in Adelaide and want to learn what the pollies are spending your taxes on then come along to the Australian Solar Energy Society, South Australia Branch’s public meeting tomorrow 29th Feb in Goodwood and say hello!   SOLAR CITIES – PUBLIC MEETING Speaker:  Dario De Bortoli, Adelaide Solar City Program Manager When:  Wednesday […]

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Solar Panel Size: Is Bigger Better?

a 410W solar panel

The Size of Solar panels is definitely increasing, there’s no denying it. A couple of years ago the average solar panel was 165W. Today the average is about 240W. The biggest one approved for installation in Australia at the time of writing is the whopping Topsun TS-S410. This giant amongst solar panels has these super sized stats:

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8 Reasons To Get A Site Inspection Before Buying Solar Power

a solar inspection

If you are considering putting some solar panels on your roof, then I strongly recommend that you have a physical site inspection before getting firm quotes. Since I started SolarQuotes many years ago, we’ve handled hundreds of thousands of quote requests and over those years the most frequent complaint I’ve had from people looking for quotes […]

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Rubbishing the idea that solar power is not commercially viable

Bin with solar panels

Australian waste management group Veolia Environment Services are very proud of themselves this week as they prepare to celebrate the installing of their brand-new, state-of-the-art solar powered energy source at its Arndell Park facility in NSW. On Feb.23, the company will be hosting a knees-up to mark the recent installation of the 50 kW solar […]

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The STC Price: Is Your Solar Installer Ripping You Off?

A solar crook

Short Answer: Probably Not. Longer Answer: Ah, the joys of STC prices! Every so often I get an email from someone who is desperately worried that their solar installer is using the STC price to rip them off. The suspicion is usually kicked off by one of two things:

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The way forward for feed-in tariffs?

A Rural German Solar Installation

Not sure how many SolarQuotes readers caught this fascinating Radio National discussion during the week. Amongst a number of issues raised, it gave a number of insights into the problems facing how Australian governments deal with solar power incentives. Hosted by Waleed Aly with guests Matthew Wright, executive director of the renewable energy action group […]

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Solar Panels On Roofs Facing Different Directions? Then You Need To Do This.

A House With Solar Panels Facing Different Directions

Here is a photo I took of a house around the corner from me. As you can see, it has solar panels on 2 separate roof areas. In solar jargon, you would say there are 2 “strings” of solar panels. The main string is facing North, which is the best roof orientation for solar panels. […]

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What is solar tower technology?

Solar updraft tower

News that the Perth-based renewable energy company Hyperion Energy is planning to build a solar tower in mid-west Western Australia sent your correspondent scurrying to the research files this week. According to the company website, Hyperion have purchased a 127,000 hectare site near the town of Tuckanarra. The site is near mines and an airport and […]

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Understanding Solar Panel Specifications Part #2: Power, Tolerance & Efficiency

the 4 most important solar panel specifications

In Part #1 I went into great detail about why the “Max Power” quoted on your solar panel specification sheet and the real max power you will actually get from that panel are very different numbers. I showed you how to calculate a more accurate max power by using some little known temperature specs. In this post […]

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