Flex Solar Panels Review: Now Available In Australia – But Beware Outrageous Prices

December 5, 2017 2019-05-08T13:07:35 by 47 Comments
panels and pile of cash

Flex Solar Panels: Beware of door knockers selling them for silly money.

Update 8th May 2019:  Flex has stated they are leaving the wholesale and retail solar market in Australia but they will honor their commitments.

Flex solar panels are now sold in Australia and there is one thing I want to be very clear about.  Despite their name, you should not flex these panels.  They are not the flexible sort you might put on the roof of your caravan or, at a suitable level of insanity, your cat.  They are the normal sort that go on top of homes and if you flex them too much they will splinter and break.  [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Panels

Is Electromagnetic Radiation From Rooftop Solar Dangerous?

November 27, 2017 2017-11-30T00:05:46 by 61 Comments
EMF warning sign

Will Electromagnetic Radiation From Solar Panels And Inverters Frizz Your Heir?

All electrical and electronic device create electromagnetic fields or EMF around them when used and also emit electromagnetic radiation or EMR.  This includes solar panels and solar inverters.  So is it possible for the electromagnetic fields or radiation from your rooftop solar system to harm you or your family?

Normally these type of questions have two answers — a short one and a long one.  But today I’ll give you two short answers and then a long one. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Panels

SolarWorld AG Is Dead — Long Live SolarWorld Industries GmbH

November 22, 2017 2018-03-29T07:24:02 by 1 Comment
solarworld phoenix

SolarWorld Descended From Celestial Heights Into A World Of Pain But Rises Anew Like A Phoenix From The Ashes

Those of you who have German made SolarWorld panels on your roofs or are thinking of getting some, may be wondering about what’s happened with the company since they filed for bankruptcy in May this year.

Well, SolarWorld AG, consisting of SolarWorld in Europe and its shares in subsidiaries in Africa and Asia — but not the United States — is no more.  It went bankrupt and was bought out by a group of investors and brought back from the dead as SolarWorld Industries GmbH. [Read more…]

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Longi Solar Arrive In Australia. Tier 1 Panels With Impressive Performance Warranty

October 27, 2017 2024-01-25T07:39:05 by 22 Comments

longi solar panels

Quite Possibly The Largest Monosilicon Solar Panel Producer In The World…

Longi Solar is a Chinese company that has accumulated solar panel production capacity at a prodigious pace.

Also, they’ve grown really fast. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Panels

Clean Energy Council Sounds Warning On Solar Panel Quality

October 17, 2017 2017-10-19T09:14:58 by 17 Comments
solar alarm

CEC are concerned with the reliability of solar panels entering Australia, and are taking steps to address it.

On Thursday I attended the All Energy Conference and saw a presentation by Sandy Pulsford of the Clean Energy Council on solar panel quality.  The gloomy skies above Melbourne that day well matched the bad news he gave about the quality of some solar panels in Australia. [Read more…]

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Door-To-Door Solar Sales: Know Your Rights

October 11, 2017 2018-02-27T10:17:52 by 20 Comments
Door to door solar salesman

Door to door solar salespeople are common in Australia. Here’s what you need to know if you are approached.

If you own an unshaded roof in Australia, filling your roof with solar is probably the best investment you can make. That sounds like a smarmy sales pitch, but the numbers are there for everyone to see.

Yet over 75% of Australian roofs still don’t have panels.

So how can the solar industry get the message out to non-solar homeowners that they really need to at least run the numbers on getting panels installed?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Panels

How Many Solar Panels Do You Need To Charge An Electric Car?

October 5, 2017 2024-04-11T15:13:44 by 34 Comments
dude charging his car with solar

If you are thinking of buying an electric car and have solar then you need to read this.

I recently wrote about how an electric car revolution is coming thanks to declining battery costs and rising environmental concern.  I made a promise in that article I would soon write about charging electric cars with rooftop solar and soon is now.  Or at least it soon will be. [Read more…]

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SunPower P-Series Panels Now Available In Australia

October 3, 2017 2018-08-31T22:10:19 by 26 Comments

sunpower p-series panel

UPDATE 27th August 2018:  It has kindly been brought to my attention the warranty for SunPower’s P17 panels excludes normal residential installation.  The SunPower P17 warranty says it does not apply to:

“PV Modules which have been installed on single-family homes or semi‐detached homes, including but not limited to duplexes and townhomes. For clarity, apartment and condominiums are not excluded.”

UPDATE 31st August 2018:  P18 and P19 panels will be covered by SunPower’s warranty when installed on residential homes.  Warranties for P-series panels can be downloaded from SunPower’s Australian site on this page. 

 

SunPower Performance Series solar panel, or P-Series for short, are now available in Australia.  These attractive panels aren’t available in a wide range of colours and are a lower efficiency but cheaper alternative to SunPower’s E-Series and X-Series panels.  While sold overseas for more than a year, they’ve only been available Down Under for a few months and they’ve been on the down low, as their arrival was devoid of fanfare. [Read more…]

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The Solar Spectrum And Why “UV Solar Panels” Are A Con Job

August 17, 2017 2023-11-13T12:31:53 by 27 Comments
rainbow power company

We are getting reports of people paying through the nose for 5kW of “UV Solar Panels” from fast talking salespeople. Paying more for “UV Panels” is about as sensible as buying rainbow powered panels from a leprechaun.

The sun is a very large, naturally occurring, fusion reactor in the sky.

It constantly releases a vast amount of energy.  Even by the standards of sky fusion reactors it’s pretty powerful and outshines at least 90% of the stars out there. [Read more…]

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Solar Panel Torture Testing: Jinko & Trina Do Well

August 1, 2017 2024-01-25T11:00:29 by 4 Comments
DNV-GL reliability scorecard

Now you know what the those DNV-GL engineers *really* get up to in their secret European HQ…

DNV-GL’s PV Module Reliability Scorecard Report for 2017 is out1 and gives some fascinating results.  You can follow that long link in the previous sentence to download your own copy of the report, but for your benefit, I’ve included my own unique analysis below, where I will give my interpretation of the results in 2,000 words or less.

Or possibly more.  I’ve only just started writing so don’t really know just how many words I’ll require, but if it looks like I’ll go over my self-imposed limit I can just leaveoutsomespaces, so it’s not really a problem. [Read more…]

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