Search Results for: queensland

Why connecting your solar system to the grid is harder in NSW

December 23, 2014 2017-04-20T10:31:27 by 11 Comments
grid connect solar

What are the rules for connecting to the grid in NSW?

Australians love their rooftop solar and believe it or not, despite our relatively small population we have collectively installed more household solar systems than almost any other country in the world.

For consumers, it’s a no brainer but the electricity companies seem to be making things more difficult as time goes by. Is this justified and are their technical issues we need to understand as solar owners, or are they just profiteering?

The grid is a complex beast and the electricity industry is even more complicated, so the answer is ‘a bit of both’. In fairness to the utilities, and because I’ve had a heap of emails from frustrated NSW folks, I thought I would highlight the New South Wales Service Rules as one example of how technical issues need to be considered. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Installation Tagged With: ,

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

December 8, 2014 2017-10-25T09:45:40 by 2 Comments
solar panels and south australia map

SA takes the medal for most solar systems per household.

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 comparatively low with only around five percent of households using solar energy, said the ABS’ Karen Connaughton in a 3/12/2014 press release. However the change in just three years has been dramatic.

“Jump just three years, to 2014, and there are solar panels being used by fourteen per cent of all households.”, she said.

Add to this solar hot water and the numbers of households using solar energy in one form or another has jumped to 20 percent. [Read more…]

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Nine in ten look to solar to beat rising electricity bills: report

October 22, 2014 2017-10-25T09:47:30 by 6 Comments
rising bills

Rising electricity costs are driving more people to consider solar.

An Ernst and Young utilities survey report released this week has highlighted the battle ordinary Australians are having with their rising electricity bills. The study also found over 90 percent of those surveyed would like to switch to solar power. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Economics Of Solar Tagged With: ,

Is Greg Hunt running scared?

August 25, 2014 2017-10-25T10:00:49 by 7 Comments
whiteboard with angey face

Greg Hunt’s taxpayer funded whiteboard yesterday.

Ever noticed how shrill Environment Minister Greg Hunt is getting these days readers? The man once considered the smiling face of the Abbott’s administration’s policy of dismantling of renewable energy appears to have lost all control in recent weeks.

I refer of course to Gregory’s extraordinary attack on John Grimes, the head of the Australian Solar Council this week on the ABC’s Mornings program in Brisbane. The minister sank the boot into the respected chief executive of the Council saying he should be “ashamed” of hinself and accused him of duplicity. Which sounds quite funny coming from a politician.

So what disturbed the minister so much to resort to this type of debating technique? [Read more…]

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Solar Hot Water vs Solar Panels. Which should you buy?

August 6, 2014 2024-10-02T12:23:49 by 73 Comments

Poor old Solar Hot Water.

The concept of heating water directly from the Aussie sun with a solar hot water system like this…

a solahart hot water heater

The humble solar hot water heater

…really seems to have gone from hero to zero over the past 3 years. [Read more…]

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Clive Palmer: renewable energy hero? Or a publicity-seeking miner/politician?

June 30, 2014 2017-10-25T10:02:51 by 16 Comments
clive palmers head on a green heroes body

Is it a bird, is it a plane? No it’s a miner who loves publicity.

So Big Clive Palmer is suddenly a renewable energy hero? And wants to be revered as the saviour of the clean energy sector? According to some press coverage, the Queensland fossil fuel mining superstar has single handedly changed the climate change debate in our country.

Not for me. Let’s be very careful before we anoint The Big Fella. [Read more…]

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Taking the politics out of solar power policy

September 2, 2013 2017-10-25T10:12:17 by 4 Comments
Renewable energy is too important to be trusted to pollies.

Renewable energy is too important to be trusted to pollies.

At the end of a depressing week for renewables, talk over the SQHQ water cooler has been centred along the lines of: is it time to keep pollies out of solar power policy?

First we had the shrill and frankly rather desperate tactic of Kevin “The Queensland Kid” Rudd bucketing on the carbon tax introduced by his predecessor Julia “Who?” Gillard. The Kid seemed to aiming to appease the fossil fuel lobby (or was it Murdoch?) when he said his previous government had “got it wrong” on the carbon tax. [Read more…]

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Australia’s capital leads country in commercial solar

July 8, 2013 2018-03-23T15:27:46 by Leave a Comment
Canberra sign

Stop The Press! Something positive out of Canberra!

The feverish activity in Canberra continues. Kevin Rudd (aka The Milky Bar Kid) is PM this week apparently. But we thought we’d pop down the road to the seat of the far more interesting ACT territory government for this week’s solar news. For it is here that Australian commercial solar history is being made. (See our previous rant on the development of this solar farm).

Overshadowed by the shenanigans of their Fed cousins, the ACT government recently passed legislation which will see the country’s largest commercial solar farm built at Royalla. The facility, just outside the nation’s capital, has been the subject of bitter debate but the ACT’s Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development Simon “Solar” Corbell, in standing his ground against well-organised protests, pointed out the many benefits the farm will bring to the territory. [Read more…]

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What does the Rudd return mean for solar power?

July 1, 2013 2017-10-25T10:14:08 by Leave a Comment

The big news in Australian politics during the week was of course the return of the Queensland kid, aka The Ruddster, The Nerdy One etc. The Machiavellian machinations of the Australian Labor Party which allowed the regurgitation of Kevin Rudd has done wonders to kick start a moribund election campaign, but what effect will this have on the party’s solar power policy?

At the time of writing Heavy Kevvy had just announced his new front bench. [Read more…]

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Do Sen Joyce’s troglodyte views on solar influence Coalition energy policy?

February 12, 2013 2017-10-25T10:18:33 by Leave a Comment
caveman

“Me Barnaby – Me like fire and coal. Grunt Grunt”

As the country is dragged reluctantly — like a kid from a lolly shop — into election mode following the Prime Minister’s Jan. 30 early announcement, it is instructive to see where the mainstream media turned much of its attention. To which party is best suited to handle the economy? The environment? Climate change? Energy policy? No. Much of the media’s focus has been on the significance of the PM’s new glasses.

Will the new glasses signify a new 20/20 “vision splendid” for the nation’s energy policy? A policy of engaging with renewables (particularly solar power)? Or do they signify a myopic energy policy dedicated to continuing support of fossil fuel subsidies? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Policy
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