About Ronald BrakelsJoining SolarQuotes in 2015, Ronald has a knack for reading those tediously long documents put out by solar manufacturers and translating their contents into something consumers might find interesting. Master of heavily researched deep-dive blog posts, his relentless consumer advocacy has ruffled more than a few manufacturer's feathers over the years. Read Ronald's full bio.
The government’s Solar Sharer Offer will make free electricity available for three or more hours around midday.
I’ve heard this called a dumb policy that won’t lower costs because it will just shift them around, causing people to pay more at other times and in other ways to make up for what they get for free. But this isn’t true!
A Sungrow battery installed by I Want Energy.
Here are two facts about home batteries:
The good news is the first effect is much larger than the second. Pinning down how much home batteries reduce emissions isn’t easy, but I’m going to take a stab at it. Hopefully, by the time you get to the end of this post, you won’t want to take a stab at me.
A Sigenergy home battery installed by Stag Electrical Solar and Refrigeration ACT.
Home batteries lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Unless, of course, you’re a complete nutter and use a battery to deliberately raise them in an attempt to cook the planet. But this ruins the savings, so only a complete loony would try it.
I don’t mind admitting that I was recently taken for a ride — by a robot car. Tesla Full Self Driving (Supervised) has arrived in Australia, and it took me for a spin.
While I don’t consider myself particularly wicked, I still get little rest. For example, on Friday night, I was relaxing with my family in sub-tropical Queensland when we were interrupted by a solar telemarketer who so blatantly breached industry standards I put the police onto him.
Thanks to the federal battery rebate and multiple state incentives, many new battery owners will soon be wondering if they should join a Virtual Power Plant (VPP). While the pros can make it worthwhile, you have to look out for a huge list of cons before signing up.
Today’s a big day for Virtual Power Plants (VPPs): a federal rebate for VPP-capable batteries is coming online, while two states are offering incentives that require joining one. So why are multiple layers of government teaming up to tempt you into handing over control of your battery to a VPP operator, and should you take the bait?
The “Australians for Natural Gas” group has today been reported to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for allegedly misleading claims. I’ve looked into this group and found it is spreading a number of false messages on social media, including that gas is an “efficient” source of power and that Australians would struggle to feed themselves or heat their homes without it.
A group called “Mums for Nuclear” has spent a lot of money on newspaper and online ads in the lead-up to the federal election, claiming that “Nuclear energy in the mix with renewables reduces cost by 25%“. I’ve investigated this claim and found it to be false. Hopefully, this will prompt all groups that have made unrealistic claims about nuclear affordability to take them back and spark a chain retraction.
There’s a lot of conflicting claims out there about whether getting off gas is worth it financially. I’ve taken a deeper look at how much money Australian households could actually save by quitting gas, and the amount will make your head spin worse than a leaky stovetop.
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