A German Solar Installation - Are the Solar Glory Days over in Deutschland?
From manufacturing quality cars to leading the continent in economic policy, Germany is often considered Europe’s “go to” country. The “engine room” of European manufacturing also is well out in front of its neighbours in renewable energy policy, with its clear and consistent support for solar installation legendary. [Read more...]
If you live in Adelaide and want to learn what the pollies are spending your taxes on then come along to the Australian Solar Energy Society, South Australia Branch’s public meeting tomorrow 29th Feb in Goodwood and say hello!
SOLAR CITIES – PUBLIC MEETING
Speaker: Dario De Bortoli, Adelaide Solar City Program Manager
When: Wednesday 29 February 2012 commencing 7:00 pm
Where: Goodwood Community Centre, 32-34 Rosa Street, Goodwood 5034
(Location Map: http://is.gd/ZrLFfX. Car Park, Tram, Train and Bus services all conveniently serve this venue)
Cost: $5.00 payable at venue door – all welcome! (AuSES Members – Free)
Reservations: To assist with catering, please provide your name and the number of people in your party via email to AuSES.Adelaide[AT]yahoo.com.au
This presentation will discuss the background to the Solar Cities Program, the expected benefits, targets and progress to date, community engagement strategies, the solar trial, the cost reflective pricing trial, energy efficiency initiatives and the home energy assistance program.
Presented by: Dario De Bortoli, Adelaide Solar City Program Manager
Dario is an employee of Origin Energy Ltd and is responsible for the management and ongoing delivery of the $65 million Adelaide Solar City project.
A 410W solar panel. Look at the size of that thing! (image: TopSun)
The Size of Solar panels is definitely increasing, there’s no denying it.
A couple of years ago the average solar panel was 165W. Today the average is about 240W. The biggest one approved for installation in Australia at the time of writing is the whopping Topsun TS-S410. This giant amongst solar panels has these super sized stats: [Read more...]
If you are considering putting some solar panels on your roof, then I strongly recommend that you have a physical site inspection before getting firm quotes.
Since I started SolarQuotes over 3 years ago, we’ve handled over 100,000 quote requests and over those years the most frequent complaint I’ve had from people looking for quotes is:
“This solar installer won’t even give me a ballpark price for a solar system! He’s insisting on coming round to my house first!”
Australian waste management group Veolia Environment Services are very proud of themselves this week as they prepare to celebrate the installing of their brand-new, state-of-the-art solar powered energy source at its Arndell Park facility in NSW.
On Feb.23, the company will be hosting a knees-up to mark the recent installation of the 50 kW solar panel system, which has been added as part of the company’s drive towards boosting its renewable energy source. The project — in collaboration with BP Solar and installed by Solar Technology — is a key part of the Blacktown Solar City project, described, a little breathlessly in a company press release of Feb. 14, as being derived from “…a $94 million Australian Government initiative to help lay the foundations of a sustainable energy future.”
Short Answer: Probably Not.
Longer Answer:
Ah, the joys of STC prices!
Every so often I get an email from someone who is desperately worried that their solar installer is using the STC price to rip them off.
The suspicion is usually kicked off by one of two things: [Read more...]
Not sure how many SolarQuotes readers caught this fascinating Radio National discussion during the week. Amongst a number of issues raised, it gave a number of insights into the problems facing how Australian governments deal with solar power incentives.
Hosted by Waleed Aly with guests Matthew Wright, executive director of the renewable energy action group Beyond Zero Emissions, and Tony Wood, energy program director at the Grattan Institute, the discussion also included a brief cameo appearance by phone from the ACT’s minister for sustainable development, Simon Corbell.
Here is a photo I took of a house around the corner from me.
As you can see it has solar panels on 2 separate roof areas. In solar jargon, you would say there are 2 “strings” of solar panels.
The main string is facing North, which is the best roof orientation for solar panels. These panels should get the optimum amount of sun throughout the day.
The smaller string is facing East. These panels will get 15-20% less sunlight than the panels facing North.
Obviously the installer could not fit all the panels on the North facing roof. Fair enough.
If your home will require solar panels on multiple roof areas, which face different directions, then you must use a special type of inverter to ensure that you still get good system performance. [Read more...]
News that the Perth-based renewable energy company Hyperion Energy is planning to build a solar tower in mid-west Western Australia sent your correspondent scurrying to the research files this week.
According to the company website, Hyperion have purchased a 127,000 hectare site near the town of Tuckanarra. The site is near mines and an airport and is judged to have a low risk of natural disasters such as earthquakes or cyclones. Chiefly though, the main advantage of the site for the location of a solar tower is the “horizon solar radiation of 2300MJ/m2″ (read huge), according to the company.
The theory behind the solar tower technology sounds simple enough. A flat, large expanse of a greenhouse-like material is spread around the base of a tall tower. When the sun heats the air under the material it rises (remember your science?) and as such has only one place where it can go: the central solar tower (see diagram). The hot air is forced through the narrow space of the tower where it causes a wind which turns a number of turbines inside the tower.
Hyperion points to three key advantages of solar tower technology over other forms of tapping the sun’s energy.
In my last blog post I went into great detail about why the “Max Power” quoted on your solar panel specification sheet and the real max power you will actually get from that panel are very different numbers. I showed you how to calculate a more accurate max power by using some little known temperature specs.
In this post I’ll go through the other important numbers that you should look at when comparing solar panels.
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