Posts By Richard Chirgwin On SolarQuotes

Australian Solar Design Tool Adds Remote Shading Analysis

Remote solar panel shading analysis

Some of you will be aware of — or be users of — Pylon’s solar design and quoting tool: Pylon Observer. This year, the company announced an important new tool as part of Observer – remote solar shading analysis. [Read more…]

Meet The SolarQuotes Crew: Margherita Moffa, Customer Support

Margherita Moffa - SolarQuotes

If you email SolarQuotes with a question – it will usually land in Margherita’s inbox.

Margherita Moffa was working for her husband after having left a customer service career in banking, when her brother-in-law Robert (SQ Client Operations) asked if she could help out handling customer service inquiries for a fairly young SolarQuotes. [Read more…]

Catch Solar Relay: Load Diversion For Local Grid Stability

Catch Solar Relay

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…]

It’s Time For All Solar Manufacturers To Take Cyber Security Seriously

Solar power devices and cyber-security

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…]

How Ned From SolarQuotes Ensures The Integrity Of Our Solar Reviews

SolarQuotes' Ned Holland screening reviews

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…]

Tesla Now Supporting Powerwalls For Off Grid Living In Australia

Off-grid Tesla Powerwall battery storage.

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 of 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…]

Using Table Salt To Make Better, Cheaper Li-ion Batteries

Salt use in Li-ion battery cathodes

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.

[Read more…]

Check Out This Novel Zenaji Battery Installation in WA

Zenaji battery installation

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…]

Check Out This 120 kW, 200 kWh Off-Grid Factory In Mackay, QLD

Solar + Battery Storage - Off-Grid Factory

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…]

Solar Analytics’ Nigel Morris Talks Sungrow, Distributed Control & Interoperability

Nigel Morris - Solar Analytics - Sungrow

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…]

Get The SolarQuotes Weekly Newsletter