At the beginning of September 2012, the average price per watt of an installed solar system in Australia was around $2.30 after subtracting the Federal Small-scale Technology Certificate (STC) ‘rebate’, […]
Category: Installation advice
Solar Choice blog articles about what to consider when installing your solar power system.
Is Spinach the key to solar’s future?
Researchers from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee have discovered what Popeye knew all along–spinach gives you more energy. Although more traditionally associated with giving an extra energy boost to the […]
Australia’s first solar desalination plant approved
The clean energy applications of solar PV, powering everything from our homes and schools to large sports stadiums, are well-documented but less well known is thier potential to provide us […]
SolarBridge Technologies: Microinverters for AC solar panels
SolarBridge Technologies is a US-based company whose mission is to facilitate uptake of rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV) by reducing its complexity and improving its cost-efficiency, developing and manufacturing reliable, high-quality […]
Solmetric’s Suneye 210: An on-site tool for estimating solar PV system performance
Solmetric’s Suneye 210 is a comprehensive site evaluation tool for solar PV system design and installation. The Suneye 210 allows installers and designers to accurately predict a solar PV system’s […]
Solar Choice Solar System Price Index: August 2012
As of 1 August 2012, the average price per watt of an installed solar system prices sits at about $2.40/watt (after STC rebate) across Australia’s major capital cities (excluding Darwin […]
Kyocera’s Energy Management System: An integrated battery storage solution
Kyocera has introduced an integrated Energy Management System (EMS) and battery storage solution onto the Japanese market for the summer of 2012. The Kyocera EMS combines Kyocera solar panels with […]
ET Solar launches AC micro-inverter solar panels in North America
China’s ET Solar has launched the industry’s highest efficiency AC solar panel. The UL 1741 and UL 1703 certified solar panels will contain SolarBridge Pantheon II micro-inverters and produce grid-compatible […]
Solar power storage solutions: Beyond batteries
The development of affordable storage solutions for solar power or other renewable energy sources such as wind will change the nature of electricity generation and distribution as we know it. Most people […]
SolAmitec: Holistic solar system management software
SolAmitec (formerly SolGuard) is a comprehensive solar PV system performance monitoring and management solution that is compatible with a wide range of components that are already widely available and used […]
90kW solar catamaran completes journey around the world
An ambitious project showcasing the potential of solar PV has just come to a close. Pulling into Monaco on 4 May 2012, MS Turanor PlanetSolar catamaran has become the first […]
The dark side of solar power: Super-black solar cell absorbs 99.7% of light
A collaboration between Natcore Tech and the US Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) has birthed the darkest silicon solar cells in the world. The cells absorb 99.7% of all light that […]
Solar Power and Electric Vehicles: Solar Power to Horesepower
Clearly the global solar panel industry has grown at a rapid rate over the last few years with Germany leading the way. However, the next step of this rapidly evolving […]
Quasi-mono Silicon Solar PV Panels?
A new type of crystalline silicon solar cell has been developed which may change the nature of the solar PV market: quasi-mono silicon. The two most popular types for solar […]
Solar Leasing/”Free Solar Panels”/Pay-as-you-go solar agreements now available in Australia
The so-called “free solar panels” (sometimes called “pay-as you-go solar” or “solar leasing”) business model that has already seen major success in the USA and the UK is now available […]
Largest wind turbine in the world installed off coast of Belgium
A wind turbine with a rated capacity of 6.15 megawatts (MW)–the largest in the world–has been installed off the Belgian coast. Altogether, 48 wind turbines of this size […]
Enecsys microinverters in Australia
Enecsys microinverters are an innovative technology that offer a revolutionary approach to solar PV system design and installation. Instead of having a conventional, centralised solar inverter, Enecsys microinverters are attached directly […]
UNSW designs Solar BIPV roofing materials that regulate building temperature
The University of New South Wales’ School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering is in the process of developing building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) roofing materials which can also assist in regulating […]
University of Wollongong BIPV System
The University of Wollongong has installed a building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) system on the roof of its McKinnon Pavillion. The installation is part of the University’s ‘McKinnon Precinct Landscape Masterplan’, which […]
Desertec: Solar Power from the Sahara to Germany
A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald analyses German’s plans to pipe solar power from the Sahara Desert across the Mediterranean, and into its electricity grid. The project, known […]
Construction on Silex Solar Systems concentrating PV demo plant underway, PV production resumes
Australia’s Silex Systems has announced both that construction on its Mildura, Victoria concentrating photovoltaics (CPV) demonstration plant, and also that subsidiary SilexSolar will resume production of solar panels at its […]
Dyesol Solar: Dye-and-nanotech Solar Photovoltaics
Dyesol is positioning itself to revolutionise the solar photovoltaics (PV) industry by making available an innovative but still largely uncommercialised PV technology: the Dye Solar Cell (DSC). DSC is a […]
Solarwatt Easy-In BIPV roof systems
Solarwatt is a solar photovoltaic (solar PV) module maker based in Dresden, Germany. In addition to standard solar modules, the company also provides off-grid solar and building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) solutions. […]
Solar Choice gets Australia’s first i-MiEV 100% Electric Vehicle
Solar Choice now has its own electric vehicle–the first of its kind ordered and purchased in Australia. The Mitsubishi i MiEV (“Mitsubishi Innovative Electric Vehicle”), will be parked […]
SMA Sunny Boy 2100TL inverters now available in Australia
SMA Sunny Boy 2100TL inverters, part of SMA’s transformerless inverter range, are now available in Australia. The vast majority of the solar installers in the Solar Choice installer […]
SunPower Solar Panels in Australia
The world record for solar panel efficiency goes to SunPower‘s solar panels: 24% cell efficiency (sunlight –> usable electricity in laboratory conditions) and 19.6% conversion efficiency (sunlight –> […]
Off-grid solar power system in Sydney’s Western Suburbs
Nev and Linda Sweeney have been living on their 500-square-meter suburban plot in Sydney’s St Clair Suburb since the early 1980s, and have been trying to live sustainably using the […]
Electricity price comparisons: Choosing a retailer
You’re interesting in bringing your home into the 21st century by going solar. Great. This is not likely a decision that you’ll make lightly. Calculating what size solar system your […]
Solar power reaching grid parity in parts of NSW
Even taking into account the overhead cost of purchasing a solar power system, the price of solar has for the first time dipped below below that of coal-fired generation in […]
Ford and SunPower: Solar Power and Electric Vehicles made affordable
Automobile manufacturer Ford and the US solar panel producer SunPower have teamed up in a strategic partnership to encourage both renewable energy and electric vehicles (EVs). The program, given the […]
Solyndra Solar Tubes: Installations growing in Australia
Solyndra solar tube technology has been widely praised as one of the most innovative approaches to solar electricity generation in the world. Solyndra modules utilise ordinarily lower-efficiency (compared to mono- […]
