Dr Matthew Tetlow and the solar-powered CubeSat : University of Adelaide
Early this morning Australian time, the first Aussie-built satellites to be launched for 15 years left terra firma from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
One of the tiny nanosatellites, or CubeSats, was built at University of Adelaide and is being delivered along with two other locally-made devices by NASA on an Atlas V rocket bound for the International Space Station.
Is it reasonable to expect a “8-15% return on investment” on a Powerwall 2?
Last month, Lyndon Rive, Tesla’s Vice President for Energy Products, stood up in front of a large group of people, including me, and promised the Powerwall 2 will deliver a return between 8% and 15%. [Read more…]
Sydney Opera House In Sustainability Scam Shocker! Photo Credit: Finn
This morning the Australian Financial Review reported on how the Sydney Opera House and Energy Australia, and apparently even the CSIRO, are teaming up to create a solar energy trading scheme that, on the face of it, is completely useless. But, once you think it through, it clearly makes the world a worse place. [Read more…]
Unless your local electricity network provides a local variation to a new Australian Standard that becomes mandatory on Thursday, it may be illegal to install a Powerwall 2 plus solar on a single phase. [Read more…]
Enphase panel monitoring is a great feature. But some Enphase installers flat out refuse to enable it.
There are many people in this world who enjoy monitoring the output of their rooftop solar systems.
But other people – not so much. For example, I don’t think my parents have checked the output of their system since they got it. My father just looks at the electricity bill every three months and grunts, “Power bill low. Is good.” And then goes back to making stone tools.
But for those who enjoy the heady pleasures of solar system monitoring, modern technology can provide the fix you’re looking for. [Read more…]
OneSolar make a lot a lot of claims on their website that just don’t stack up.
When it comes to choosing solar panels and inverters, we recommend sticking to well known brands.
Over the years we’ve seen lots of obscure panel brands hit Australian shores, often with slick websites, and almost always with dubious claims of being ‘engineered’ in anywhere-but-China.
Our experience is that the quality of these mysterious brands is often poor, and if they fail a few years down the line it can be very hard to find the company that originally imported or manufactured them. [Read more…]
Last Thursday in a trendy re-purposed Substation near Melbourne, Elon Musk’s cousin Lyndon Rive claimed he could solve SA’s energy woes in 100 days.
How?
By installing 100-300MWh of batteries.
Big Call.
A day later, via Twitter, Aussie tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes asks Musk if he’s serious about “100MW1” of batteries in 100 days. Musk wagers he’ll deliver and install them in 100 days or it’s free. [Read more…]
Can Ampetus’ Super Lithium battery beat Elon’s Powerwall 2?
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Note: As of 29 May 2018 Ampetus Energy Pty Limited have been placed in liquidation
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A lot of attention has been paid to the Tesla Powerwall 2 lately on account of how it promises to dramatically cut the cost of home battery storage. And when I wrote “promises” I chose that word carefully on account of how that’s all we got at the moment. We won’t know what it’s capable of until next month when Tesla promises the first installations will be done. [Read more…]
Joyce titters, Weatherill gets mad, Australia cooks.
Late on Wednesday afternoon, in the middle of a heatwave, electricity was cut off to roughly 90,000 Adelaide properties for around 45 minutes.
Because I have access to a working TV at the moment1 I have seen an implausible number of people shitting bricks over this incident. So many bricks I could use them to build a Great Wall of South Australia. I’m sure it would be effective at keeping foreigners out. After all, who’d want to enter a state surrounded by shitty bricks?
To all the people who are acting like this is some sort of unprecedented event2, I have to ask which bloody country do you live in? Rolling blackouts during heatwaves in Australia are not uncommon and have occurred in every mainland state, including those that are almost entirely powered by coal.
But for those who are complaining for the right reasons, your anger is bloody well justified. [Read more…]
Will they scrap the Renewable Energy Target (and by extension the ‘Solar Rebate’) or won’t they?
The Australian newspaper has reported that a couple of Coalition MPs have said Australia should scrap its Renewable Energy Target (RET) if Donald Trump dumps the United States’ commitment to the Paris climate agreement. [Read more…]
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