This morning, at 2:00 am Adelaide time, I watched Elon Musk’s “Resilience Day” announcement.  I wasn’t happy about the timing.  I had under four hours warning of the event and less than 3 hours sleep. 

But I made the sacrifice so I could tell you not only how Tesla is coping with supply chain disruptions and raw material price increases, but also how Elon Musk is working to ensure humanity’s long term survival. [Read more…]

Take a couple of electrical engineers sharing a home, add lockdown boredom, and what you might get is a nifty way of using electricity market information to help customers consume electricity when it’s green. And where their electricity retailer passes on real time wholesale electricity prices, cheap. [Read more…]

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…]

Tesla’s solar tiles are finally coming to Australia. You won’t believe what Elon Musk has promised the first thousand buyers… Note: There are no Tesla Tile installs in Australia at the moment, and this picture is of Tractile Solar Tiles in Marino, SA.

Note: This post was published on April the first 2021

When Elon Musk launched Tesla Solar Roof Tiles four and a half years ago, there was only one question his Australian fans were desperate to know: [Read more…]

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…]

Maverick electricity retailer Amber Electric can automatically switch on your appliances when wholesale electricity prices are low or negative.

Years ago when people first started talking about exposing consumers to the wholesale electricity price, I thought it was a bad idea as I felt most households weren’t up to the challenge of managing the risk of price spikes. [Read more…]

The famous, termite-proof South Australian Stobie Pole that holds SA’s distribution network off the ground.

The most interesting presentation at this year’s Smart Energy virtual conference was only 9 minutes long and by Future Networks engineer, Cathryn McDonald.  [Read more…]

A big problem with ducted air-conditioning is the ducts compromise the thermal envelope of the room, wasting precious energy. A new Australian invention solves that problem.

An asthma attack following a child’s night-time popcorn mishap set Adelaide engineer Dean McGurgan wondering why, in his ducted-aircon-equipped home, he even copped smoke exposure all the way from the kitchen to the bedroom.

And that set him on a development project he reckons could save money for others with ducted air-conditioning. [Read more…]

The Catch Solar Relay is a cheap, simple & smart way to improve your solar self-consumption.

As we approach the final quarter of 2020 even COVID can’t stop Australians installing more solar than ever before.

And with so much solar electricity being generated in the middle of the day, the value of energy between 10 am and 3 pm is falling. [Read more…]

With a smart 3rd party controller, your air conditioner can help a solar-laden grid balance supply and demand.

While regulators fret about the impact of solar power on low voltage distribution networks, developers are looking at ways to use household loads to relieve the stress.

Last week, I chatted to an NZ-founded company called Paladin, whose focus over the last four or five years has been a controller that diverts excess power from PV to a customer’s electric hot water service. [Read more…]