There’s No Such Thing As A Badly Oriented Roof For Solar

Roof orientation and solar power in Australia

1.85kW left vs 10.85kW right

In Australia, the ideal solar panel orientation to maximise annual energy yield is north. If you’ve been holding back on solar power because your roof’s orientation is east, west or even south, it’s time to reconsider. [Read more…]

Solar Panel Insurance: The Good, The Bad & The Exclusions

Solar power system insurance explained.

Insuring your new rooftop solar power or battery system can provide peace of mind. It’s a simple process to pay the premium, but what happens in the unlikely event of a claim? Will the insurance company be equally as keen to hand over the cash? [Read more…]

Blemishes Appear On Top-End REC Alpha Panels Less Than Two Years In

blemishes on 2 year old REC Alpha panels

Recently we fielded a query from a Western Australian gent who was curious about a special extra detail he’d noticed in the premium products bought from a recommended installer. [Read more…]

Some Solutions To Solar Panel Recycling In Australia

piles of old solar panels

Are you scratching your head over what to do with old solar panels?  After dissecting solar panel recycling’s tricky challenges yesterday, today I’m plunging headfirst into solutions. [Read more…]

The Problem With Solar Panel Recycling In Australia

Cleaning up the solar panel recycling mess

Australia’s solar panel recycling problem is huge. With no clear rules from government bodies, we’re left with a big mess and many questions. This two-part series will dig into this issue to clarify the confusion and find some answers. [Read more…]

Glued-On GoodWe Galaxy Solar Panels Land In Australia

a pot of glue

Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) company Umax Energy has been signed as the Australian master distributor for Shanghai-based module vendor GoodWe. [Read more…]

New WINAICO Panels Help Installers Navigate Australia’s 600V Rule

WINAICO will soon take orders for a range of high-yield panels offering up to 430 watts per unit. [Read more…]

Tongwei Solar: A Lot Can Change In Five Years

Tongwei Solar Panel and logo

It’s a little over five years since SolarQuotes first discovered Tongwei Solar, back then a manufacturer mostly turning silicon ingots into solar cells sold to panel manufacturers. [Read more…]

Trina Solar Panel Warranties: Deep Dive

Trina solar panel warranty review

Image: Midjourney “bearded man drowning in a sea of warranty documents”

Trina Solar:  A Company That Acts Better Than Its Warranties Require

Trina Solar is a giant Chinese company and, in 2022 was the world’s second-largest producer of solar panels.  Their products are among the most common electricity-producing rectangles on Australian roofs. [Read more…]

Hey, Solar Panel Manufacturers! What Installers Really Want.

What solar panel installers want

I don’t know about homo erectus but homo sapiens is being asked to lift a panel that’s 2.4 metres tall. These images aren’t much out of scale!

After what seems like days of research and consultation with hundreds of members of the Australian solar industry (more than I can sensibly count on my fingers anyway), I’ve come up with a wish-list of what installers want when it comes to the solar panels they are bolting to roofs: [Read more…]

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