The Queensland Government recently confirmed the details of their interest free loan scheme for rooftop solar.  Michael — the guy who does the real writing work on this blog instead of mostly just stringing together old jokes as I do — wrote about this and the conditions that have to be met to qualify for a loan in this article here. [Read more…]

A new scheme called “The Power Of Choice” has moved responsibility for meters to the retailers.

On the first of December 2017 responsibility for electricity meters in the National Energy Market or NEM changed hands¹.  The NEM is a National Electricity Market that apparently thinks Western Australia and the Northern Territory are other countries because they’re not included.

The job of installing and maintaining electricity meters was taken from Distributed Network Service Providers or DNSPs and given to Electricity Retailers.  In other words, it was taken from the people who distribute electricity from long distance transmission lines to homes and businesses and given to the people who bill you for electricity. [Read more…]

Labor’s Jay Weatherill is out. The Liberal’s Steven Marshall is in. What does this mean for the future of renewable energy in South Australia?

The South Australian Liberals have won the election.  The results seemed clear on Saturday night and are looking very definite now on Monday morning.  They have a small but clear majority allowing them to govern in their own right.  Now that the power is theirs, will solar and wind continue to expand in South Australia or will Premier Marshall peel off his face to reveal he is Mecha-Abbott underneath and set about destroying the renewable energy industry in South Australia? [Read more…]

Tony Abbott And Craig Kelly Want Frydenberg To Adjust The Small-scale Technology Percentage

Tony Abbott recently made a comment about the STCs that reduce the cost of rooftop solar to households and are commonly called the “solar rebate“¹.  Guess what he wants to do with them?  Do you need a hint?  Tell you what, I’ll make it easy for you and put it in the form of a multiple choice question. [Read more…]

On Saturday the 17th of March South Australians will head to school, church, the RSL, or where ever their local polling booth happens to be to cast their ballot in the state government election.  I’ve already received the piece of colored  paper I’m supposed to bring with me so I can vote.  It’s very different from the good old days in Queensland when the only paper you needed to make your vote count was brown and in the form of a bag full of cash. [Read more…]

But is is a good idea?

Yesterday I was surprised by the South Australian Government announcing a plan to put solar panels on the roofs of 50,000 or more homes along with a Telsa Powerwall 2 and smart meter.  The goal is to have them work together to create a virtual power station with 250 megawatts of solar panels and battery storage that can provide 250 megawatts of power over two and a half hours. [Read more…]

A General Electric TM2500 turbine generator yesterday. Or possibly earlier.

In order to improve the probability of South Australia making it through the summer without one or more blackouts, the state government has leased, with an eye to buy, 9 mobile General Electric TM2500 turbine generators.  [Read more…]

Australian Standards must break free. Charging hundreds of dollars per standard is nuttier than wearing high heels while vacuuming.

People say I have no standards, but that’s only true in a legal sense.  You see, I do have access to Australian Standards that have been purchased by my employer, SolarQuotes.  While these particular standards have a heavy focus on how not to kill people when mucking around with electricity, there lots of other ones covering almost everything you can think of – and quite a few things you’d be very unlikely to think of.   [Read more…]