Solar Quotes Blog

Calls for Housing NSW to allow solar installations

housing nsw logo and solar panel

With domestic renewable energy systems rapidly increasing in popularity for Australian households, you’d think solar installations for Housing NSW properties would follow suit. With financial savings, clean energy and less pressure on the environment, its a no-brainer really. However this is not so, says activist James Ray who has found that the department has ruled […]

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Solarmax Inverter Bankruptcy: What it means for Solarmax owners.

solarmax logo

Bad news for fans of Solarmax inverters as its parent company, Sputnik Engineering, has just filed for insolvency. Solarmax are a 20 year old Swiss inverter manufacturer who made fantastic quality inverters at a great price. It seems, with hindsight, that the price was a little too great! If you were considering buying a Solarmax, […]

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ARENA: the government renewable energy agency that refuses to go away

Remember ARENA? The plucky Australian Renewable Energy Agency that has helped many renewable energy ventures and research with seed funding and other support? The ongoing benefits of ARENA include not only financial support but also because their involvement has helped pave the way for research and development in partnership with the private sector. Wait. Ongoing? […]

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SA leads the way with 25 percent of households using solar: ABS

The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show one in five households use some form of solar energy. The figures back anecdotal and other statistical evidence of a massive growth surge for solar that has occurred since the ABS first began publishing statistics on solar energy, back in 2011. Then the figures were […]

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Does Sunpower + Solarbridge Microinverters = World’s Best Performing Solar System?

sunpower and solarbridge logos

A lot of Aussie solar installers really dislike microinverters. In fact many refuse to install them. The main reason is a fear of inverter failure. The reasoning goes something like this:

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The role of renewables in the Victorian election

vote paper

Sometimes satire says it best. As one superbly entertaining online news company put it, this week saw the Victorian electorate dump “Whatisname” in favour of “Thatotherguy”. Labor’s Daniel Andrews (“Thatotherguy”) gave the federal Liberals a huge shake when he ousted the Liberal Party’s Denis Napthine, the first time since 1955 that a Victorian government has […]

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Genius Or Bonkers? US solar company glueing solar to roofs to reduce installation costs.

lumeta solar panels

Innovation in solar never ceases to amaze me. But I can’t decide if this particular innovation is genius or totally nuts. US solar panel manufacturer Lumeta Solar have announced a new 175W solar panel design that is super thin, with no frame, a junction box on top instead of underneath, and get this: double sided sticky tape […]

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Can the world produce enough raw materials to feed the solar panel boom?

solar panel factory

It’s now almost a given that solar energy is the answer for the world’s energy problems. As experts have noted, it is entirely conceivable (perhaps inevitable) that solar will be the world’s first choice for energy by mid-century. With regular improvements in PV technology driving cost and efficiency breakthroughs, the predictions of the amount of […]

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Coal vs Solar – Which is more space efficient?

solar and a coal fired power station

This is a guest post by Greg Bell – which was conceived in the comments section of another post on this blog. Take it away Greg: ——- Some things we can say we know for sure about photovoltaics – the fuel is free, it’s quiet, and there are no moving parts. But other benefits are more […]

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Australian leaders lurch further out of step on renewables

abbott and renewables

A very significant week in Australian renewable energy politics with the historic agreement between China and the United States on reducing emissions at the recent APEC summit in Beijing. Significant for Australia because the ideological campaign against renewables (let’s call it for what it is) used to be heavily based around the fact that we […]

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