The best place for solar panels is on your roof. Despite this, over one-third of our solar electricity comes from large-scale solar farms. Their construction can involve land clearing that releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Â
These emissions aren’t good, but they are trivial next to those from fossil fuel generation. [Read more…]
Recently, I’ve noticed a number of solar myths coming back to haunt the comments section of this blog. Here’s the latest one:
“Those black solar panels actually heat the planet by increasing the amount of energy the earth absorbs from the sun? Â Ha! You never thought of that did you!”
It’s October and Australia’s wholesale electricity price crisis has entered its sixth month.  Massive retail electricity price hikes in the eastern states are becoming more likely (from July 2023). These could exceed 10 cents per kilowatt-hour.Â
This post is a quick update on the current situation, followed by a short whinge. [Read more…]
The Fronius Wattpilot finally launches in Australia
I have good news if you want to charge an electric vehicle with Austrian technology. Fronius Australia launched their Wattpilot EV charger last week. Last week we were told it would be available here “in a couple of weeks”. A surprisingly imprecise period of time, given they are Austrian. [Read more…]
If you live in Perth, or within a four-hour drive, I have some good news.  Synergy has changed its residential time-of-use tariff to 8 cents per kilowatt-hour for grid electricity from 9am to 3pm. They’ve also changed its name to “Midday Saver”. [Read more…]
Australia’s wholesale electricity price crisis is in its fifth month. This ongoing disaster began in April and really took off in May, June, and July. It continued through August, but the crisis wasn’t as crisisy as the previous three months. [Read more…]
EV Battery Packs Have It Easy Compared To Home BatteriesÂ
It has been two weeks since I laid down the heavy news that out of the 26 home batteries given a whirl by the Canberra Battery Test Centre, only two worked as they should without suffering a fault or excessive capacity deterioration. This sad news has caused some people to wonder if electric car battery packs will have similar poor performance. [Read more…]
Origin Energy’s ‘Origin Loop’ Virtual Power Plant (Loop VPP)Â pays you to let Origin discharge your battery into the grid, but you must have an Origin retail electricity plan to use it.Â
Even though there’s a big dollar incentive up front, I don’t think it’s a good deal overall. In this post, I’ll tell you why I’m not excited about the deal, and hopefully, that will help you decide for yourself whether to sign up. [Read more…]
For eight years, the Canberra Battery Test Centre lived up to its name and tested batteries. From 2016, they put 26 home batteries through their paces. If I had to sum up the results in a single word, it would be: [Read more…]
The Canberra Battery Test Centre’s third phase of testing is complete. In fact, all their testing is now finished. They have shut up shop and published their final report. [Read more…]
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