All-Energy Australia 2025 may be done and dusted, but the southern hemisphere’s largest clean energy event certainly hasn’t been forgotten. SolarQuotes founder Finn Peacock highlights some of the many products showcased, from connectors to home batteries.
Sungrow AC EV Charger
Long promised, Sungrow’s EV charger is finally available in Australia and integrates seamlessly with the company’s hybrid inverters.
“Good on you Sungrow, shame it took about 2 years to get here,” says Finn.
Lavo *Hydrogen* Battery
We originally covered the Lavo hydrogen battery 5 years ago. It’s still around and still *huge*.
“The last time I checked, this thing was insanely expensive,” states Finn. “And with lithium ion battery prices coming down and down and down, I just don’t understand why it exists.”
Yingli’s Powerful Rooftop Panel
Remember Yingli? Finn asked Yingli’s panda mascot about the company’s new 510-watt residential rooftop solar panels. The new panel is just going through CEC approvals now, and we don’t have further information yet. Yingli Panda, who has an eerily similar voice to Finn, highlighted the company had been around for 30 years.
SMA Misses The Mark
Back in the day, a quality solar power system included an SMA inverter, with one of the points of difference being German manufacturing. Then the company shifted some of its production to China and the wheels sort of fell off. This is illustrated in the number of recent SMA inverter reviews on SolarQuotes. We’ve only had 23 submitted in the past year, whereas competitor Fronius (made next-door in Austria) has had 595.
Finn looks briefly at the firm’s backup box and a feature that allows the running of appliances even without a battery. On that note, SMA has been really slow on batteries. Their latest offering is a stackable system with modules that only have 3.28 kWh capacity each, for a maximum capacity of 16.4 kWh per stack.
“That’s stupid small,” says Finn. “That’s just not big enough in 2025. People are installing 30 kWh … And I think they are going to be really expensive. So, SMA, I just don’t get it.”
Swipe Right On Tinder Tindo
Finn enjoyed a brew from Tindo’s barista while reflecting on the company’s Australian-made panels.
“The thing about Tindo Solar panels; they were great, made in Adelaide, Australia support, but a bit too expensive in my opinion. But the good news is I’ve just heard on the grapevine they’ve just dropped their prices substantially.”
The SolarQuotes solar panel comparison table is currently listing the Tindo Walara 440-Watt panel for $191 RRP; a big drop from the $260 we had noted previously.
Passive Battery Cooling Tech
Something guaranteed to reduce the life of a home battery is high ambient temperature. SolCold are claiming their special film added to a battery will drop the temperature up to 5 degrees Celsius below ambient with no power consumption.
StarCharge
Finn took a look at StarCharge’s vBox battery and Vesta battery inverter.
“I don’t like that. The way the world’s going is that [inverter] needs to be integrated into that [battery stack]. Don’t hold out much hope for that taking off. It’s got to be integrated these days.”
V2G/V2H – UUGreenPower
UUGreenPower’s 7 kW single-phase Vehicle to Grid (V2G) and Vehicle to Home (V2H) charger also incorporates a PV and battery inverter all in the one box.
“So, expect to see more of that; integrating the EV charger into the solar or hybrid inverter,” says Finn. “The problem with that is, how often do you charge your car close to your hybrid inverter? Well, it depends on your house, right – so, integration; perhaps that’s taking it too far.”
Anker Solix X1
There were a lot of white boxes and “dog-ugly” batteries at the conference, but Finn reckons relative newcomer Anker Solix‘s X1 takes the prize for the best looking system.
“It looks really, really nice. We’re getting really good feedback actually from our installers.”
Time will tell how well it performs and how well supported it is in Australia.
Finn says one thing to watch for is the X1’s hybrid inverter only has 2 Maximum Power Point Trackers (MPPTs); so if you have more than two roof faces, you’ll probably want two hybrid inverters.
Aiko 500-Watt Residential Solar Panel
Finn’s pick of the solar panels was the 500-Watt Aiko Infinite Neostar; suitable for residential rooftops.
“That’s really freaking impressive. Solar panels can be sexy you know, it’s not all about batteries.”
Fox ESS Batteries
Fox ESS batteries have been turning heads in Australia with super low pricing; reportedly wholesaling around the same per kilowatt-hour as the federal government battery rebate (~ $370 per kilowatt-hour in 2025 before admin fees).
“That means if you’re going to buy a Fox ESS battery, it makes no sense to get a small one,” says Finn. “lf you have a 42 kWh battery, you’re going use 16 – 20 kWh for your own house and that leaves you another 20 kWh to play the wholesale market or give to a VPP. So you can actually earn money from half your battery and save money with the other half of the battery.”
The Fox ESS rep said the company was already seeing that happen via Amber for Batteries.
The big question, Finn says, is can Fox ESS maintain the quality of the hardware at that pricing point and points out there’s nothing quite like time-in-market for a low-risk purchase. The other issue is when you have really cheap hardware, it tends to attract really cheap installers and poor installations, which could hurt the company’s reputation.
PowerCap Sodium Ion Batteries
Asked to sum up their batteries, the PowerCap rep said sodium- ion batteries have a longer life-cycle, are safer, have a higher temperature range and are more environmentally friendly than lithium-ion batteries.
Sodium-ion technology has been promised for a long time. And after a few false starts from other firms, sodium-ion batteries should finally be available in Australia via PowerCap in a few months’ time — and around the pricing point as lithium.
“That’s amazing because one of the things the haters will throw at home batteries is they catch fire, they’re gonna burn your house down,” says Finn. “These things are never gonna catch fire. So really, really exciting technology.”
Bits ‘N Pieces
Falling firmly into the nichey-categories was Finn’s coverage of various saddles, MC connectors, cables, cable organisers and more on show.
Not as exciting as the latest battery kit perhaps, but without good gear of this nature, system performance and safety can suffer. Check the full video above for the riveting details.
And if this video has left you wanting to learn more about what happened at All-Energy, see Max’s post on how the event grappled with scale of the home battery boom. Also, Anthony has a piece with his take on All-Energy and another on the slew of stackable battery solutions showcased.
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