Search Results for: nsw

Solar Hot Water Diverters Beat Batteries On Energy Storage

August 22, 2017 2017-09-18T09:17:54 by 74 Comments
battery vs hot water cylinder

If you want to store your solar energy, should you put it in a battery or in your hot water cylinder?

 

Update: Compare all the hot water diverters available in Australia here.

How A Diverter Can Give You Solar Hot Water And Store Energy At A Lower Cost Than Batteries

A solar hot water diverter is an electronic device that sends surplus electricity from your rooftop solar to your electric hot water cylinder.  This reduces, or even eliminates, the need to use grid electricity to heat water.  Under the right circumstances diverters can save you money and allow you to store energy at a cost lower than batteries.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Hot Water

More Progress On Queensland’s Hayman And Daydream Solar Farms

August 18, 2017 2017-08-18T06:03:06 by 1 Comment
Solar farms in Queensland

Daydream + Hayman Solar Farm = 2 million solar panels | Image: First Solar

Interconnection agreements have been finalised for Edify Energy’s Daydream and Hayman Solar Farms, which will be connected to Powerlink’s 275kV network near Collinsville in Queensland.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: General Solar & Storage News

The Solar Spectrum And Why “UV Solar Panels” Are A Con Job

August 17, 2017 2023-11-13T12:31:53 by 27 Comments
rainbow power company

We are getting reports of people paying through the nose for 5kW of “UV Solar Panels” from fast talking salespeople. Paying more for “UV Panels” is about as sensible as buying rainbow powered panels from a leprechaun.

The sun is a very large, naturally occurring, fusion reactor in the sky.

It constantly releases a vast amount of energy.  Even by the standards of sky fusion reactors it’s pretty powerful and outshines at least 90% of the stars out there. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Panels Tagged With:

Coal-Fired Electricity Generation In Australia : Toxic And Terminal

August 16, 2017 2017-08-16T07:47:38 by 2 Comments

Toxic and Terminal - coal fired power in Australia

A new report says coal power regulations have failed Australians, and some of those that are in place are far less restrictive than in the US, EU – and even China.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: General Solar & Storage News

How To Use a Fronius Smart Meter To Solar Power Your Hot Water

August 15, 2017 2024-01-25T09:51:47 by 86 Comments
fronius hot water diversion

Note to installers: Don’t wire directly in to bathtub or the duck will die.

Over the past week or so I’ve been politely prodded  by a plethora of people pushing me to provide information pertaining to solar hot water diverters.

A ‘hot water diverter’ is a box of power electronics that that sucks up your homes’ surplus solar electricity and diverts it to an electric hot water system instead of exporting it to the grid where it would earn a feed-in-tariff.  If the whole system is well designed and installed it will  greatly reduce or even eliminate using grid electricity for water heating. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Hot Water Tagged With: ,

Parkes Harnesses Solar Energy To Slash Electricity Costs

August 15, 2017 2017-08-15T10:36:14 by Leave a Comment

Solar Power In Parkes | Image : Public Domain

Two 100kW solar power systems have been installed for Parkes Shire Council in New South Wales, which combined will generate 612 megawatt hours of clean electricity a year.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: General Solar & Storage News

What Does The Reduced STC Price Mean For Solar?

August 11, 2017 2017-09-20T11:14:03 by 7 Comments
Solar salesperson

STC prices dropping means solar prices have risen. What has that done to solar payback times?

We were warned.

We all knew this was coming.

But who among us was prepared for the recent tumble in the price of STCs that lower the cost of rooftop solar?

Well, I was. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Economics Of Solar Tagged With: , ,

Solar Power Slashing City of Canterbury Bankstown’s Electricity Costs

August 10, 2017 2017-08-10T06:20:12 by 1 Comment
Solar panels in Canterbury Bankstown

Solar panels to play a key role in the City of Canterbury Bankstown’s energy future

The City of Canterbury Bankstown has announced it will install solar power systems on more buildings to make further substantial savings on its electricity bills and increase local efforts on addressing climate change.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: General Solar & Storage News

Unapproved Solar Panels In Clean Energy Regulator’s Crosshairs

August 9, 2017 2024-07-02T15:16:52 by Leave a Comment
Non-compliant solar panels - Australia

CER crackdown on non-compliant solar panels

The Clean Energy Regulator has announced it is targeting installations of unapproved solar panels for which STC’s have been claimed – and has already taken its first scalp.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: General Solar & Storage News

Peer Reviewed Study: Grid Connect Solar Helps Environment But Batteries Harm It

August 8, 2017 2017-08-08T14:14:24 by 98 Comments
academic in ivory tower

A paper published in ‘Nature’ has agreed with Ronald’s back of an envelope conclusions from last year: at the moment, most grid connected storage harms the environment.

Almost a year ago I wrote an article about how on-grid home battery storage does not help the environment but instead harms it by increasing greenhouse gas emissions and other types of pollution. I am raising this topic again, hoisting it above my head, and waving it around, because a scientific paper published in the journal Nature vindicates my position. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Battery Storage
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