Do batteries save money with time-of-use tariffs?

Home battery systems continue to fall in price — with an exception or two — and we are getting closer to the day when they will save a typical household money without subsidy or being part of a Virtual Power Plant.

But there is one thing that almost gets batteries to pay for themselves right now: the ridiculously expensive peak rates some time-of-use electricity tariffs charge.  But, without a subsidy, time-of-use tariffs and batteries will only save money for a few exceptional households.  [Read more…]

Suntenants offers simple solar for renters.

Update August 25th 2021:  Sun Tenants is no longer in operation.

Almost one-third of Australians live in rental properties.  This is a problem because tenants don’t like paying their own money to put solar panels on their landlord’s roof and few landlords see solar power as a good investment.  Because of this, lots of the population are missing out on the savings solar slathers all over electricity bills.  It also prevents the world benefiting from the extra clean energy that would be generated. [Read more…]

The cost of rooftop solar continues to fall despite the fact that the Australian dollar has been falling too.  It has been a while since I’ve harped on about how cost effective rooftop solar is, so I stayed up all night to make beautiful graphs of the simple solar payback time in every capital city.  In other words I will show you how many years it will take the savings on your electricity bills to cover the cost of your solar power system. [Read more…]

Should you bite the bullet and scrap your 1.5kW solar system so you can fit a bigger system on your roof?

Five to eight years ago, just as the Australian solar industry was getting underway, many people locked in high feed in tariffs for their new, cutting-edge solar power systems.  For example, many people in Victoria with systems installed before 2012 are now getting 71.3 cents per kilowatt-hour of solar electricity exported into the grid.  And they will continue to receive this for almost 7 more years. [Read more…]

Q. How much solar should you install on your roof?

A. As much as you reasonably can.

[Read more…]