A network proposal that would effectively double the charge to connect Western Australia’s more than 191,000 solar households to the grid has been slammed as unfair and counter-productive. Under a […]
Category: Solar Choice News
Solar Choice’s news service about local, national and global developments about solar photovoltaics and related technology.
South Australia’s Retailer Feed-in Tariff to increase to 6.8c/kWh (but does it really matter?)
South Australia‘s Retailer Feed-in Tariff (RFiT) will increase from the 2015 rate of 5.3c/kWh to 6.8c/kWh for the duration of 2016, according to a report from the Essential Services Commission […]
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 […]
Australia’s Redback aims to sell 28,000 home battery systems by 2019
Australian home energy storage technology developer Redback has signed an exclusive distribution agreement that will see 28,000 of the company’s SH4600 Smart Hybrid System units sold in Australia and New […]
Government report confirms solar & wind will be cheapest low-carbon technologies going forward
A new report from Australia’s official economic forecaster has underlined that solar and wind will be the cheapest low carbon energy technologies in Australia. The Australian Power Generation Technology Report […]
Commercial Solar PV Price Index: November 2015
This month we have changed our methodology for calculating commercial solar system prices, leaving out the installer-nominated ‘Solar Choice Discount’ which is usually added on to the ‘final total’ column […]
The Australian solar home in 2025 (Australian Utility Week Roundup Part 2)
Things are changing fast when it comes to electricity in Australia, and Australian Utility Week 2015 (‘the year of the digital utility’) was a great place to catch a glimpse […]
[WATCH] Home solar battery storage in the mainstream media
The topic of home energy storage has made its way into some of the biggest media outlets in Australia, with The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald running identical pieces in their respective “Money” sections, along […]
Australian Utility Week 2015 Roundup (Part 1): Australia’s emerging electricity story
Australian Utility Week 2015 wrapped up today. The two day event was held at Sydney’s Luna Park, and as I walked through the gigantic face/gate that serves as the iconic […]
Utility-scale PV costs have fallen 25% in the last year: Lazard report
In its latest study, the Levellised Cost of Energy Analysis 9.0, Lazard notes that utility-scale solar PV has fallen 25 per cent in the last year alone, since its most […]
Battery storage already competitive with fossil fuels – in the right circumstances: Report
A new report from US investment bank Lazard says battery storage is already competitive in some situations – particularly at the utility scale and in providing services such as frequency […]
Energy Storage Australia 2015 – Conference roundup
Energy Storage Australia 2015, held at Double Bay’s InterContinental Hotel on November 18-19 and organised by the Australian Solar & Energy Storage Councils, captured in both atmosphere and specifics the […]
Rooftop solar + storage could be cheaper than coal in India: KPMG
Rooftop solar and battery storage could deliver electricity to India’s households cheaper than coal-fired power from the grid as soon as 2023, a new report has predicted, while rooftop solar […]
Indian solar prices within reach of out-competing coal: KPMG
Rooftop solar and battery storage will be delivering electricity to households cheaper than coal-fired power from the grid as soon as 2023, while rooftop solar generation alone could be as […]
Battery storage systems to be allowed to export energy in WA from December
The Australian electricity industry is being “Uber’d” by battery storage technology, according to comments from West Australian energy minister Mike Nahan, a process he predicts will fundamentally change the nature […]
Magellan Power supplies 100kWh battery storage system for Variable Speed Drive (VSD) application in Sydney
Magellan Power, an Australian developer of energy storage and other power technology solutions, has recently provided a 100kWh commercial-scale DC energy storage system for a water pumping application in NSW in […]
Australian subsidies for fossil fuels are $5.6 billion annually: Report
A new international report by the UK’s Overseas Development Institute (ODI) has revealed that Australia is still subsidising fossil fuel production to the tune of a massive $A5.6 billion a […]
Australian Energy Market Operator network planning document anticipates mass uptake of solar + storage
The Australian Energy Market Operator has adapted its network planning to take into account a rapid uptake of rooftop solar, battery storage and electric vehicles. In its 2015 National Transmission […]
South Australian government seeking expressions of interest for ‘low carbon’ technologies
South Australia’s government has announced that it is seeking expressions of interest (EOI) from providers of innovative low-carbon technologies to inform a potential future tender process for the supply of […]
Brisbane’s Redflow pitches flow batteries to mining operations
Brisbane-based battery maker Redflow has called on miners to ditch diesel generation in favour of increasingly competitive renewable energy and large-scale energy storage, as part of a campaign targeting Australia’s […]
Check out Solar Choice’s new energy storage resource
Solar Choice has published a new resource for those interested in battery-based energy storage systems. Our new page, “Batteries & Home Energy Storage: Learn the Basics“, collects many of the […]
Residential solar PV price index – November 2015
Average solar system prices have sunk for the fourth month in a row, reaching a new all-time low since Solar Choice began publishing system prices in August 2012. For the […]
Solar sales stabilise with 62MW of new capacity installed in October: SunWiz
Rooftop solar installations across Australia steadied over the month of October, with a total of 62MW of capacity installed, according to industry analyst SunWiz. Despite the stable volumes, the installation […]
ACT enviro minister Corbell named one of three Solar Council ‘patrons’
ACT environment minister – and architect of the Capital’s nation-leading renewable energy policy – Simon Corbell has been named as one of three patrons to the Australian Solar Council. Corbell, […]
Unsubsidised large-scale solar beats coal, gas in Indian & Chilean auctions
Large-scale solar energy projects continue to make extraordinary gains against their fossil fuel rivals, with two stunning auction results in India and Chile over the past week both illustrating that […]
1,000MW electricity demand ‘cliff’ during Melbourne Cup demonstrates resiliency of grid – even with renewables
At about the same time as the running of Victoria’s Melbourne Cup race on Tuesday, energy market watchers were given a lesson in electricity variability – not the variability of solar […]
With demand for Tesla’s Powerwall ‘very strong’ in Australia, Gigafactory construction accelerated
Demand in Australia for the battery storage products of US electric vehicle developer Tesla has been described as “very strong” by the company, ahead of the arrival here of the […]
Large-scale solar set to boom under programs from ARENA, CEFC, Ergon & QLD government
Interest in large-scale solar projects in Australia looks to be booming, as programs by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Ergon Energy and the Queensland government […]
Solar projects win a quarter of Chilean renewables contracts at auction
Solar was a big winner at Chile’s latest energy auction, making up one-quarter of the all-renewable bids awarded 20-year contracts to supply 1,200GWh to the Chilean electricity market from 2017. […]
