Every now and then, someone pops up on Facebook with a gripe:
“SolarQuotes lets installers in their network who work from home!!! 🤬”
About Finn PeacockI'm a Chartered Electrical Engineer, Solar and Energy Efficiency nut, dad, and the founder of SolarQuotes.com.au. I started SolarQuotes in 2009 and the SolarQuotes blog in 2013 with the belief that it’s more important to be truthful and objective than popular. My last "real job" was working for the CSIRO in their renewable energy division. Since 2009, I’ve helped over 800,000 Aussies get quotes for solar from installers I trust. Read my full bio.
Phase Shift: Premium Solar Panels Are Dead
The sun appears to be setting on the premium offerings from high-end solar brands.
I’ve got top-of-the-range REC Alpha panels on my roof. I’m a solar snob.
Or at least, I was.
Phase Shift: The Real Winner of The Election? Batteries.
Labor’s back in power — and now the battery rebate is locked in.
From July 1, Australians will be able to knock about $4,000 off a home battery. The goal? A million new batteries by 2030. Based on the number of quote requests we’ve seen at SolarQuotes — up 5x since election night — this is going to move the needle fast.
Phase Shift: This Election, The Energy Story Was All Wrong
As an ex-pommie, compulsory voting still feels a bit odd to me.
Skip it and you’ll cop a $20 fine — more than it costs to fill your EV on off-peak electricity.
What’s really strange, though, isn’t the voting. It’s the energy policies on offer — and how little they match what the major parties claim to believe.
[Read more…]
Phase Shift: The Business Advice I Ignore (And Why You Benefit)
Receiving my MBA certificate from the MBA School of MBA Credentials – after 45 minutes of tuition at Adelaide Fringe.
Every now and then, someone asks: How does SolarQuotes make money?
Fair question. We run a popular site, send thousands of referrals a month, and have a reputation for helping people avoid the dodgy end of the solar market.
Phase Shift: I’ve Seen The Future, And It’s… Simple Timers
In a world full of ‘smart’ energy tech, AI-driven optimisation, and dashboards that would make a Qantas cockpit blush, I’ve come to a confronting conclusion: the future isn’t clever. It’s just… timers.
Phase Shift: New Battery? Great! Now Switch It Off Until July
Credit where it’s due: Labor’s proposed home battery rebate is the right policy at the right time — for the most part.
Phase Shift: V2G Is A Furphy
Some ideas are just too clever to die. Like Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) — the notion that your electric car can act as a home battery. Park it at home, plug it in, and when the sun goes down or prices spike, your car sells energy back to the grid. It’s green, it’s clever, and it feels like you’re gaming the system.
Phase Shift: I Could Write About Nuclear. But Then You’d Have to Read It.
March 29, 2025 2025-04-02T09:53:54 by
The Federal Election has been called, and people are now banging on my door demanding I provide them with some deep analysis on the ‘nuclear debate’. They want to know what I think about Peter Dutton’s grand plan to build nuclear power stations across Australia.
Here’s what I think: I’m not wasting your time or mine.
Phase Shift: Curtailment Is Cool
When I was a kid growing up in Yorkshire, wasting electricity was almost criminal. Coming from a place synonymous with frugality, I learned early that every kilowatt-hour was sacred. And fair enough: back in the 1970s, generating each kWh of electricity meant burning roughly a kilogram of coal mined by Arthur Scargill’s finest1.
Fast-forward to today and things couldn’t be more different. Solar and wind have free ‘fuel,’ and we often find ourselves with more electricity from wind and solar than we know what to do with.
RSS - Posts
Currently Raging Debates: