Since the early days of rooftop solar, many Australian academics & commentators have warned of a grid death spiral.
Phase Shift: The Grid Death Spiral is Bullshit
Phase Shift: Make Solar Panels Great Again
There’s a new myth floating around: if your energy retailer gives you a free 3-hour energy window in the middle of the day, you don’t need solar panels. Just get a big battery, charge it for free during the magic window, and run your house on battery power 21 hours per day.
BNPL Reforms: What They Mean For Solar Sales
As of 10 June 2025, new rules have come into play for Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) finance services across Australia; including contracts covering solar systems, batteries and other home electrification products. [Read more…]
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 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.
Fact Check: No, Mum, Nuclear Won’t Reduce Costs By 25%
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.
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.
How Josh Pays Just $612 Per Year For Electricity, Gas & Petrol
In 2023, Josh Mylne and his family reached a milestone many aspire to: an all-electric lifestyle. Their energy bills, once soaring over $5,500, have been slashed to just $612 for the entire year, thats for both home and transport. Josh now spends only 11% of his pre-electrification yearly bills, and a mere 10% compared to the average West Australian household’s energy + fuel costs.
[Read more…]
The Net Zero Australia Report & The $7-9 Trillion Panic
The Net Zero Australia Report came out on Friday, and I gotta tell ya, it’s a doozy! It’s so enormous the report’s summary report is 95 pages. It would take me a month of Sundays to get through the whole thing, but I have exactly one Sunday, so I’ll quickly say what it’s about and describe how you’re likely to see its results abused online and in the media. [Read more…]
Are You Confusing kW With kWh? You’re Not Alone
The difference between kW (kilowatts) and kWh (kilowatt-hours) is one of the most misunderstood, and hence, widely discussed topics in the solar industry. However, energy literacy is not just a matter of semantics, but also economics. [Read more…]
Currently Raging Debates: