A couple of months ago I was invited by the local council of Ryde, NSW to give a presentation about the state of the market for solar & batteries in […]
Standards Australia likely to dump proposed ‘battery bunker’ requirement
A controversial battery storage installation guideline that threatened to ban lithium-ion battery systems from being put in Australian homes or garages, looks likely to be dumped by Standards Australia, after […]
Residential battery storage installations ‘surge’ in 2017: Sunwiz
Home battery storage uptake in Australia is surging in 2017, as homes and small businesses seek to minimise their grid electricity usage, and maximise consumption of rooftop solar, to beat […]
Looking beyond solar feed-in tariffs: How to pick an electricity retailer
When solar system owners shop around for an electricity retailer, the first thing they tend to look at is the solar feed-in tariff rate that the retailer offers. The fact […]
Australia now has over 6 gigawatts (!) of small-scale solar after record August
Without googling the answer, do you know what the capacity of the largest conventional power plant in Australia is? I couldn’t, so I did google it – and now I […]
South Australian rooftop solar pushes state-wide electricity demand to record low
South Australia’s high rooftop solar penetration has helped to deliver record low demand for the state over the weekend, hitting 786MW at around 2pm on Sunday.At the time, rooftop solar accounted for […]
Let’s follow Turnbull’s lead on solar & storage to keep the lights on
Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull is proud of the upgraded 14kW rooftop solar array and 14kWh battery storage system installed at his harbourside mansion in Sydney’s Point Piper: “My son Alex is very […]
Thoughts about solar feed-in tariffs (Solartopia #4)
Spring is here, and it finally feels like it with two consecutive warm days yesterday (high of 28C) and today (high of 32C). The main implication of this is that […]
How to read a Solar battery storage specifications sheet?
Talking about home battery storage can be confusing, and if you’re confused you’re unlikely to feel confident about making a big investment like a home battery bank. There are quite a […]
Queensland regional solar feed-in tariff now available to systems up to 30kW
In a stroke of very good news for solar power in the Sunshine State, the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA) has announced that the solar feed-in tariff available to solar system […]
Energy blindness: The anxiety of not knowing (Solartopia #3)
A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article about the ‘Energy Awareness Factor‘ in household energy savings. This was prompted in part by having just moved into a house […]
Solar panel reliability testing: More relevant than tier ranking for solar homes & businesses?
Deciding whether you’re happy with a solar installers’ panel offering can be tricky business in a market flooded with different options (as is the case in Australia). Fortunately, DNV GL […]
Coal port of Newcastle to get 5MW solar farm
Plans to develop a 5MW solar farm on a former landfill site in the NSW coal port city of Newcastle are set to go to tender, after eight companies were […]
Pro-battery changes to energy market rules delayed to 2021
The Australian Energy Market Commission’s decision to put off changing the settlement period for the electricity spot price has been slammed by leading experts, who say the delay will reinforce […]
Residential Solar PV Price Index – September 2017
Average residential solar system prices are roughly on par with last month’s figures – about $1.43 per watt for a fully installed system. 5kW systems continue to offer the best […]
Commercial Solar PV Price Index for September 2017
Average commercial solar system prices continue to hover around $1.20 per watt for the month of September, following an STC-driven increase between July and August. Commercial solar system prices (10kW-100kW) […]
Export control & grid protection for commercial solar installations from BCJ controls
BCJ Controls is a solar technology company set up by ex-utility industrial electricians. Between them they have significant experience in electrical grid protection and switchboard building, as well as dealing […]
First week in a solar house: Why do we keep running out of hot water? And other fun questions. [Solartopia #2]
It’s been just over a week since I moved into my solar-powered house in suburbs of the beautiful Newcastle, the largest coal port in the world. (You can almost taste […]
Retrofitting battery storage in Brisbane: Some example case studies
We recently published an article containing a number of example case studies about retrofitting solar battery storage in Sydney. This time around we’ll be taking a look at the case […]
How SunTenants bringing solar power to the roofless
While nearly 1.7 million Australian home owners now enjoy the benefits of cheaper electricity from rooftop solar, an even greater number of households don’t have access to the market – […]
VSUN to launch vanadium flow battery for homes
ASX-listed mining group Australian Vanadium has firmed up plans to target Australia’s energy storage market via its vanadium redox flow battery offshoot, VSUN Energy, and catch the wave of home solar and […]
A customer survey compares battery quality and brand recognition
When it comes to energy storage, Australia has captured the world’s attention and is a testing ground for battery products and sales strategies that will ultimately be rolled out across […]
SA to install 30MW battery bank
South Australia is set to install another large-scale battery storage system, this time to be located on the Yorke Peninsula in, as part of a renewables-based mini-grid with the nearby Wattle […]
In response to ‘battery bunker’ standards debacle, AEMC recommends new body to oversee distributed energy
The Australian Energy Market Commission has called for the creation of a new regulatory body to oversee the distributed energy generation market, including storage technology. In its final report on […]
Commercial Solar PV Price Index for August 2017
August saw a slight increase in average commercial solar system prices as compared to July, due to a combination of price modifications due to changes in the value of STCs […]
The ‘energy awareness factor’ and how it helps households save money
For most of us, for most of our lives, electricity bills and our consumption have both been something of a black box. We know that we get a bill every […]
Warnings of energy storage market chaos, as industry unites against home battery ban
A home battery storage installation guideline proposed by Standards Australia has again been slammed by the industry as fundamentally flawed and – if passed – likely to throw the energy […]
I’m (finally) going to live in a solar-powered home
After nearly a decade working in Australia’s solar industry, I’m finally getting in on the action on a personal level. From next week I’m moving to Newcastle and will be […]
In Australian first, SA to build 150MW concentrating ‘solar tower’ plant
US company SolarReserve has been tapped by the South Australia government to deliver all its power needs via a 150MW solar tower and molten salt storage facility to be built […]
Solar Choice brokers 100kW solar car park for Sunny Queen Farms in Queensland
Solar Choice Commercial has brokered a 100kW solar car park for Sunny Queen Farm’s facilities in Carole Park, QLD. Sunny Queen is one of Australia’s leading producers of eggs, supplying […]
Tesla slams South Australia’s proposed security target
South Australia’s proposed energy security target has been slammed by Tesla as a “relic” that incentivises old energy technology over new, including the kind of grid-scale lithium-ion battery system that […]
