Richard Chirgwin is a journalist with more than 30 years' experience covering a wide range of technology topics, including electronics, telecommunications, computing and science.
A properly configured Catch Solar Relay can help increase your solar energy self-consumption and individually make a small contribution towards grid stability.
Australian solar owners: you now have a new option to put your self-consumption on autopilot while helping both stabilise the grid and enabling more of your neighbours to install solar power systems. [Read more…]
With this week’s launch of the Internet of Things Alliance Australia’s (IoTAA) security awareness guides, this seems a good time to remind the solar industry that we’re part of the Internet of Things – and so far, we seem to take a pretty relaxed attitude to security. [Read more…]
SolarQuotes’ Ned Holland hard at work fighting review spam.
What happens on SolarQuotes’ review pages is clearly part of the beating heart of this business, and anyone who has experience with open forums will know what it’s like. There are trolls, people with a grudge (both fair and unfair), honest mistakes, and occasionally dishonest reviews. [Read more…]
Wanna go off-grid? Now you can officially do it with Tesla Powerwalls.
For the ordinary on-grid customer, batteries are optional. They’re nice to have if you can afford them. Although they’re unlikely to pay for themselves, there are plenty people who want them for backup, lower power bills, and the joy of using much less grid electricity.
But if you’re off-grid (as I am), batteries aren’t optional – they are how you get through the night and have the lights come on in the morning. [Read more…]
Table salt could hold the key to bigger, cheaper Li-ion batteries.
Just before Australia went into its traditional summer stupor, someone from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in America got in touch with me about research into single-crystal technologies for Lithium-ion batteries.
Jason’s garage in Geraldton. Those funky looking black tubes are 4 x 1.93 kWh Zenaji batteries.
Jason Bertelsen isn’t a name in the renewables sector – he’s a customer. However, his story, in particular his decision to put money into Zenaji batteries, intrigued us enough to get in touch for an interview. [Read more…]
Ten years ago, a “couple of sparkies” from the Riverina headed north and set up an electrical services business in Mackay, Queensland, catering to the mining industry.
Today, Jason Sharam (managing director) and Peter Shaw (CEO) run an electrical services business with a very noticeable difference: they now have what is probably close to unique – an off-grid solar-powered manufacturing facility with “100% renewable” as its goal. [Read more…]
When I asked Solar Analytics’ head of business development Nigel Morris for a chat about the company’s partnership with Sungrow, I didn’t expect to end up in a conversation about system interoperability and standardisation. [Read more…]
I’ve heard lots of predictions about electric vehicles’ role as storage in a renewable energy future. But it’s never before occurred to me that networks might encourage EV owners of the future to fill up their cars at a charging station during the daytime, specifically so they can use that electricity to power their home at night. [Read more…]
Will solar sales soon go to the dogs without batteries? Image: Adelaide Solar Safe
Australia has seen a decade of explosive growth in renewables, but there’s another big change coming. According to Green Energy Trading chair Ric Brazzale, we’re very close to the peak of new rooftop solar PV. [Read more…]
Finn Peacock (RSS) (234)
Ronald Brakels (RSS) (374)
Michael Bloch (RSS) (1949)
Staff Writer (RSS) (261)
Richard Chirgwin (RSS) (67)
Currently Raging Debates: