The Australian Greens have outlined a plan to cut local government energy bills by fitting council buildings with solar. The new policy announced by the Greens last Monday would allow […]
Australia’s Redback Tech partners with UQ to foster storage innovations
Australian energy storage system developer Redback Technologies has announced a partnership with the University of Queensland aiming to accelerate the commercialisation of the company’s distributed energy storage – while also […]
Tasmania government urged to consider strategy to boost wind & solar
The Tasmanian government is being urged to support the development of more rooftop solar and wind energy, as it negotiates the state’s biggest energy crisis after losing the grid connection […]
One chart shows solar PV’s stunning progress over 40 years
A new graph by Earth Policy Institute and Bloomberg – sourced via this story on Treehugger – offers a stunning reminder the incredible journey solar PV has been on over […]
Queensland Productivity Commission report ignores benefits, emphasises costs of QRET
A new study from the Queensland Productivity Commission has estimated the state’s renewable energy target of 50 per cent by 2050 will cost $10.8 billion in subsidies, and has advised […]
Will Ecoult’s UltraBattery make lead acid as hot as lithium-ion?
Ecoult is the developer of a hybrid battery and carbon-based ultracapacitor called the ‘UltraBattery’ that rivals lithium-ion batteries on performance and beats them on costs. Already deployed in a number […]
Total Australian solar PV capacity now at 5 gigawatts
There is now a total of five gigawatts (5GW) of solar PV capacity installed in Australia, bringing the Sunburnt Country to its next solar milestone, according to leading solar consultancy […]
SMA introduces inverter suited for Powerwall retrofits
Inverter manufacturer SMA has introduced a simple but sophisticated inverter that works with Tesla’s Powerwall and other high-voltage battery banks. The company’s new ‘Sunny Boy Storage’ is a single-phase battery […]
Redflow to launch residential flow battery next month, installations to begin in June
Brisbane-based battery storage company Redflow looks set to launch its “plug and play” home battery storage unit as next month, ahead of the first residential installations of the product in […]
Telstra to enter arena as electricity retailer offering solar + storage
Australian telecommunications giant Telstra is taking on the nation’s major power utilites, with plans to roll out solar and battery storage technologies, and offer energy management services to millions of […]
Australia’s emissions headed back up – and may not peak until 2020
Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions are headed for a record high after 2020 and may not peak before 2030, despite the government’s claim it has been reducing carbon pollution. New analysis […]
Queensland government will not retroactively cut solar feed-in tariff payments
A proposal to make retrospective cuts to Queensland’s Solar Bonus Scheme has been ruled out by the state government, immediately after it was recommended in a report into driving down […]
QLD Productivity Commission: Solar Bonus Scheme should be ended early
The Queensland Productivity Commission has recommended bringing an early end to the state’s solar bonus scheme, arguing that it has done its job and is too costly to be continued. […]
Solar Choice’s Gannawarra Solar Farm is 2nd largest in recent ARENA funding round announcement
Solar Choice and Edify Energy‘s Gannawarra Solar Farm is the second largest of 22 ‘high merit’ projects selected to move ahead in the most recent competitive funding round for large-scale […]
Solar & wind are the future and ‘there is no going back’, says German energy minister
Germany’s Rainer Bakke – the minister responsible for the EU nation’s ambitious Energiewende, or energy transition, from coal and nuclear to renewable energy – says solar and wind energy have […]
ABC’s ‘Catalyst’ airs episode the rise of home battery storage
Earlier this week the ABC’s Catalyst aired an episode on the topic of how battery storage can support renewable energy generation. The episode, ‘Battery Powered Homes‘, marks the latest instance […]
Earth faults in solar PV systems: A cause for concern?
As of July last year, new measures have been introduced for dealing with dangerous earth faults in Australian rooftop solar PV systems. The most important among them is a requirement […]
ARENA may make additional $100m available for large-scale solar
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency is said to be considering making another $100 million worth of grants available in a new round of funding for large-scale solar projects, following the […]
Global solar growth in 2015 impressive at 34%, but government policy still key: GTM Research
Global solar PV installations for 2015 totalled 59GW according to a new report, marking a 34 per cent increase over the total installed in 2014. The report, based on preliminary […]
Commercial Solar PV Price Index: January 2016
Mirroring the Residential PV Price Index for this month, commercial system prices have undergone a slight up-tick since the end of last year. Average commercial solar PV system prices currently […]
[WATCH] Drone flyover video of Amaroo School’s 600kW solar array
Solar Choice has previously published a number of articles about our iconic Amaroo School solar project – the largest rooftop solar installation in the ACT and the 11th largest installation […]
The cost, productivity & return on investment for 2kW solar panel systems.
How much does a 2kW solar system cost, how much energy can you expect it to produce, and what sort of a financial return will a home see on a […]
Australia’s new solar milestone: One panel per capita
There are now as many solar panels installed in Australia as there are humans in the country, according to recent analysis from the folks at Sunwiz, Australia’s leading solar market […]
Australian Anti-Dumping Commission to reexamine Chinese panel dumping complaint
The Australian Anti-Dumping Commission (ADC) has reopened the case against Chinese solar panel manufacturers accused of dumping polycrystalline solar photovoltaic modules into the Australian market. The case was taken up […]
Residential solar PV price index – January 2016
After about 5 months of steady declines since about August of 2015, the average price of solar PV system prices rose slightly (approximately 5c/W) between December of 2015 and January of […]
Battery storage for solar in Western Australia
Around 20% of the homes in Western Australia have solar panels installed on their roofs, according to the APVI. This makes WA the Australian state with the 3rd highest concentration […]
Sacred Sun’s lead carbon batteries
Sacred Sun is a manufacturer of a variety of battery technologies for applications ranging from renewables backup, grid-level storage, electric vehicles and telecommunications. The company, founded in 1991 and listed […]
Can you have ’24 hours of sun’ with Tesla’s Powerwall? Q&A with Fronius Australia
Fronius is one of the most highly-regarded and popular solar inverter manufacturers in Australia. On the back of this success, last year the company ramped up its activities with regard […]
A look back at 2015: The year Australia talked (a lot) about solar battery storage
With 2016 slated to be ‘the year of the battery‘, we could look back on 2015 as ‘the year of talking about the battery’. While the past 12 months were […]
Once coal-fired, Brisbane Powerhouse resurrected as 100kW solar power plant
The Brisbane Powerhouse, the city’s former coal-fired plant turned popular hub for Queensland’s bustling theatre and arts scene, has come full circle and is again generating power. This time however the Powerhouse is generating […]
Nearly 1GW of solar installed in Aus in 2015 – thanks to large-scale projects
Australia’s budding large-scale solar market has helped deliver its second biggest year of PV growth, with nearly 1 GW installed in 2015, despite a flagging residential sector. According to a […]
