German battery storage maker Sonnen has flagged establishing manufacturing operations in Australia if the local market proves as strong as predicted. Sonnenbatterie – the biggest selling battery storage product in […]
Category: Solar System Products
Solar Choice blog articles and reviews about components for solar power systems, including solar inverters, solar cells, solar modules, and solar batteries.
Fronius offering $2,000 rebate for homes to upgrade to 3-phase connection
Inverter manufacturer Fronius are offering an interesting rebate for homes who opt to install one of the company’s two energy storage packages. Until 30 June 2016, the company will cover […]
Battery prices will drop 50% by 2020: Enphase
US inverter maker Enphase has predicted that battery storage costs and prices will halve by 2020, as it prepares to launch its first product onto the Australian market. Enphase on […]
How the South Australian government is supporting renewables & energy storage
South Australia is one of the most progressive states in the country when it comes to renewable energy. Roughly 30% of the homes in the state already have solar PV […]
What’s a partial off-grid solar-plus-storage system?
Going partially off the grid is a smart alternative for homes who want to become completely energy self-sufficient. A partial off-grid solar system is one that runs a few essential […]
What if the QLD government offered battery incentives in the form of a (voluntary) feed-in tariff buyout?
There are tens of thousands of Queensland households benefitting from the state’s Solar Bonus Feed-in Tariff Scheme, which offers a generous rate of 44c per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to those who […]
Going mostly renewable on WA grid more cost-effective than ‘business as usual’: SIREN
A high penetration renewable energy system would be cheaper than one based around existing fossil fuel generation, according to new modelling from a group of engineers, energy analysts and IT […]
Tesla’s Powerwall in Melbourne, Vic: Compare prices
Melbourne remains one of Australia’s top spots for rooftop solar power. With solar homes receiving only a pittance for their excess energy and the state’s Transitional & Standard Feed-in Tariffs […]
Redflow looking to raise money for residential flow battery marketing push
Australian battery storage developer Redflow is seeking to raise $12.9 million for marketing and fine-tuning production of its household “plug and play” battery storage product, which is set to launch […]
CEC calls on government to implement battery-friendly energy market reforms
The Clean Energy Council has called on governments and industry to work together to ready Australia’s electricity market for the rapid uptake of residential and commercial battery storage, and to […]
What could a federal incentive for home solar battery storage look like?
Strong government incentives paved the way for rooftop solar power to achieve the prominence that it has in Australia. Home battery storage is the next frontier in distributed energy, but […]
GoodWe inverters in Australia
GoodWe is a manufacturer of inverters whose products are used in residential and commercial solar PV systems Australia-wide. This article provides an overview of the company’s Australian product catalogue – […]
Tesla’s Powerwall in Sydney, NSW: How much, and is it worth it?
Tesla’s Powerwall is the home battery bank that has taken Australia by storm – interest and demand are through the roof for this particular product despite a plethora of other […]
Can you go off-grid with a 3kW solar system plus batteries?
One of the most common solar system sizes in Australia is 3 kilowatts (kW). 3kW solar system strike the right balance between size and affordability, costing on average about $4,700 […]
Giant Power’s lead carbon batteries are a cost-effective option for off-grid energy storage
Giant Power – a specialist in the supply of energy storage technology for off-grid solar systems – is now supplying a range of cost-effective and high-performance lead carbon batteries from […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
CALB battery storage solutions for homes and businesses
China Aviation Lithium Battery Co (CALB) is a Henan-based manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles (EV) and residential, commercial and utility-scale energy storage applications. The company has a global […]
How Fulcrum3D’s CloudCAM aims to improve solar farm reliability
Fulcrum3D is an Australian technology developer whose innovative CloudCAM technology allows solar farm developers and operators a high degree of granularity in predicting solar energy yields thanks to its sophisticated […]
Who sells Tesla’s Powerwall in Australia? (And how much does it cost?)
Earlier this week, Tesla at long last revealed (with some fanfare) which Australian installers have been knighted as ‘authorised resellers’ of the Powerwall. So who is selling Tesla’s Powerwall in […]
Hybrid inverters vs battery inverters for home solar energy storage
Home solar energy storage is quickly coming into the mainstream in Australia, thanks to the low cost of solar PV installations here. Every home that installs a battery storage system […]
Why Australia is fertile ground for home battery storage (Q&A with Enphase cofounder Raghu Belur – Part 3)
Solar Choice: Enphase is known mainly for its world-leading microinverters. What spurred the company to get involved in the energy storage market, and why did it choose Australia as the […]
Home solar in Australia: To grid or not to grid? (Q&A with Enphase cofounder Raghu Belur – Part 2)
Solar Choice: Many Australian households talk about ‘going off-grid’. Could the Enphase system help them achieve this goal? What are your thoughts on this desire to cut ties with utilities […]
The evolving role of the solar home on the electricity grid (Interview with Enphase cofounder Raghu Belur – Part 1)
I had the opportunity to catch up with Enphase Energy co-founder Raghu Belur at Australian Utility Week following a panel discussion about distributed renewable energy integration in which he took […]
