Solar Category of one step off the grid
It’s the feeling I get from seeing small seedlings sprout from the seedling trays in my glasshouse at the start of spring. It’s the warm fuzzies I get from knowing our rain water tank is full. It’s the deep satisfaction from presenting a meal to friends that’s made from our own produce. These are the…
The Western Australia town that was shifted, en masse, off the reticulated gas network and taken all-electric is now the focus of a new retail energy offer targeting households that are unable to install rooftop solar. Horizon Power, which last year began the process of electrifying hundreds of homes and businesses in Esperance after the…
Australia is doing its best to help fulfil International Energy Agency predictions of a global boom in heat pump uptake, with the latest national data showing a 70 per cent jump in installations of the technology that promises a cheaper and more efficient way of heating water and homes. In its second Quarterly Carbon Market…
Tesla has narrowed down the timing of the arrival in Australia of its hotly anticipated new home battery, telling local installers to expect to start taking orders for the Powerwall 3 in late 2024. Tesla hosted its first ever Australian Installer Day last month in Sydney, giving the industry hands-on access to the suite of…
A new home energy management “ecosystem” has been launched in Australia, promising to optimise solar and battery savings by monitoring and automating the use of household appliances, including scheduled electric vehicle charging. Nasdaq listed Maxeon Solar, a spin-off from SunPower in the US, says its SunPower One suite of products and services is now available…
Amber’s Tim Barson on how home batteries are turning into a money spinner. Plus: Rooftop solar shattering records across the grid. You can find previous episodes of the Solar Insiders podcast here or on your favourite podcast platform. Pylon is a proud sponsor of Solar Insiders. nextracker is a proud sponsor of Solar Insiders….
Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) and Dutch research institute AMOLF announced last week that they have fabricated a multijunction solar cell with a record efficiency of 36.1%. The two research institutes presented the new record at the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference (EU PVSEC) in Lisbon late last week, believing it…
A two-way electricity tariff being trialled in New South Wales is delivering a daily profit to one Northern Sydney solar household, peaking at times at $20 a day and making the purchase of a Tesla Powerwall battery a no-brainer. The trial, a collaboration between distribution company Ausgrid and retailer Amber Electric, offers households on the…
Victoria’s Labor government is turning its attention to how best to electrify the state’s housing stock, with the launch of a new grants scheme to deliver bulk solar panels and electric hot water rebates for housing. The $10 million Residential Electrification Grants program was opened on Monday to entities providing installations to more than 50…
Three decades ago, I visited Nimbin’s Rainbow Power Company for the first time pondering a change of lifestyle and career. It felt like I had landed in an alternative universe. I found a ramshackle collective of Aquarius Festival survivors who had built a business out of saving the planet, creating right livelihood and mandating employment…
Rooftop solar fires are great mainstream news fodder. The most recent example turned up last week, when an ABC Darwin story about a home where a PV system’s DC isolator went up in flames (no one was hurt and the house survived unscathed) was spun into a bigger story about how there has been a…
Pay Australians a bit more to shift their power use, and they will do it, says new research out of Monash University Business School. Researchers led by Dr Gordon Leslie found that if power retailers reward customers with low-cost energy during the day, Aussies will respond by changing their habits to make the most of…