Average solar system prices dipped slightly between February and March 2018 – coming in at about $1.38 per watt as opposed to $1.40/W last month – according to the most […]
Australian homes, business installed 6.5 solar panels per minute in 2017
New data from the Clean Energy Regulator has confirmed 2017 as a record breaking year for rooftop solar take, with Australian homes and businesses installing PV panels at a mind-bending […]
Solar power for doctors’ surgeries & medical centres: What’s the go?
Doctors’ surgeries and medical centres are among the best candidates for rooftop solar in Australia. Surgeries tend to use the most electricity during daylight hours; without solar, they pay their […]
Victoria town’s breakthrough deal on network tariffs as it pursues 100% renewables
The regional Victorian town of Newstead has negotiated new network charges with electricity distributor, Powercor, to to help clear the way to building a small solar farm and sharing the […]
Introducing our Commercial Solar System Payback Calculator
Solar Choice has been managing tenders for commercial solar projects since 2010, during which time our engineering team has composed thousands of free Indicative Business Cases for commercial clients. On […]
Solar Analytics is in! (Solartopia #11)
Solar Analytics Santa (AKA Nigel Morris) arrived on his sleigh (AKA his all-electric Zero motorcycle) on Tuesday to install the Solar Analytics unit that’s been sitting on my desk for […]
Victoria regulator finalises new time-varying tariffs for solar exports
Victoria’s solar feed-in tariff is set to shift to a time-varying model, after the details of the of the new scheme – an Australian first – were finalised by Victoria’s […]
Xenophon’s SA BEST unveils community electricity co-op plan
Nick Xenophon’s SA Best party has unveiled an energy policy plan to cut South Australia’s power prices by up to 20 per cent by setting up a community electricity co-op. […]
Battery Storage Price Index – February 2018
This month we’ve changed up the style of the graphs that we use for our ‘Are We There Yet?’ Meter, and altered them to focus only on the ‘low’ end […]
Battery storage: Are Australian households about to charge into market?
The combination of economics, a crucial state political battle, a move to local manufacturing, and soaring grid prices, could finally deliver Australia’s much forecast boom in residential battery storage. According […]
Germany’s sonnen to manufacture solar batteries in Adelaide
Leading German battery storage company sonnen has announced plans to establish a battery manufacturing plant in Adelaide, creating more than 400 jobs. Sonnen, which launched its “sonnet-flat” residential battery storage […]
Commercial Solar PV Price Index for February 2018
Average commercial solar system prices continue to hover at around $1.17 per watt ($1.17/W) for systems between 10kW and 100kW that we track in our monthly index. Please note that […]
‘Reposit First’ monitoring system is here! (Solartopia #10)
I am very happy to announce that I’ve finally got the first of three energy management/monitoring systems for my home up and fully functioning. Reposit Power have sent one of […]
Australia’s grid-scale storage boom, mapped
A report published today by the Climate Council had some pretty impressive stats on home battery storage uptake in Australia – you can read about that on One Step Off […]
Tips for going solar with a fiddly, inner city rooftop
If you take a look at the APVI’s Solar Status Map, a curious thing you’ll notice is that the penetration rates for rooftop solar in Australia’s most densely populated capital […]
Home battery storage uptake tripled in 2017 in Australia
As rooftop solar continues to boom in Australia, a new report suggests household battery storage could soon follow suit, with uptake predicted to have tripled in 2017, and costs of […]
Residential Solar PV Price Index – February 2018
Average solar system prices (on ‘primary’ offerings) have slipped slightly upwards since the beginning of the year, coming in at around $1.40/W – as opposed to about $1.30/W in December – […]
We’ve updated our ‘capital city’ pages!
We’ve just spent a bit of time going through some of our most popular pages and making sure that the information they contain is up to date for 2018. Which […]
Backup power with home solar battery storage: What are your options?
NOTE: This article has been updated with a June 2019 article, click here to see! Home battery storage is becoming increasingly popular in Australia, and one of the most in-demand […]
South Australia unveils another big battery, this time with solar
South Australia is set to get another “big battery”, this time a 21MW/26MWh storage system next to a new 44MW solar farm to be constructed by Tilt Renewables. The project, […]
7 things to know about Tesla’s world’s biggest virtual power plant
The 250MW Tesla virtual power plant in South Australia unveiled on Sunday is not just the world’s biggest of its kind, it’s a huge leap towards the future grid, where […]
New solution turns forklifts into commercial solar batteries
RossiniEnergy has developed a device that transforms underused forklifts into energy storage systems for businesses. The solution, called Nuvolino, is already in commercial operation in Italy and France – and […]
Two improvements to our Home Solar & Battery Calculator
Following a major revamp of our Solar & Battery Storage Sizing & Payback Estimator midway through last year, we’ve just made a couple more significant improvements based on feedback from users. […]
Liddell, the coal plant that “predates colour TV”, trips again
The National Electricity Market’s “summer of trips” continued this week, with a unit at AGL Energy’s Liddell coal power plant in New South Wales dropping out on Tuesday afternoon, and […]
Victorian electricity prices on the rise in 2018
Whilst most Australian’s have been enjoying a break at the end of 2017 and in the first weeks of 2018, Victorian electricity retailers have been busy updating their pricing. It […]
Plunging costs make solar, wind and battery storage cheaper than coal
Wind and solar power costs appear to have crossed a new threshold, after a US energy tender suggested “firm and dispatchable” renewables were now cheaper than existing coal plants. The […]
Solar battery storage in Sydney: Know your options
Solar battery storage is becoming an increasingly attractive and viable option for homes in Sydney, NSW. This article examines the different situations in which someone living in Sydney may consider installing […]
Battery Storage Price Index – January 2018
After some significant additions to our battery pricing database (including some ‘recommended retail price’ (RRP) data from manufacturers), average ‘full’ battery system prices (i.e. including inverter) fell to about $1,580 […]
Trump’s solar panel tariffs: Impact may not be huge for US homes
Given the intense interest that the news of a new import tariff for solar panels in the USA recently announced by the Trump administration has received even here in Australia, […]
Tesla big battery moves from show-boating to money-making
Since its launch in December, the Tesla big battery, formally known as the Hornsdale Power Reserve, has mostly been performing a mixture of tests, trials and just a little showboating. […]
What are the best cities for home solar battery storage? (January 2018 update)
Having just published an article on the state of Australia’s battery storage market at the beginning of 2018 (recently updated), we decided we would endeavour to shed a bit more light […]
