Australian Standards Must Be Free For The Benefit Of Education, Business And The World.

January 11, 2018 2024-01-25T11:36:48 by 29 Comments
australian solar standards and freddie

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…]

Filed Under: Solar Policy

Merry Christmas And A Happy Old Year

December 24, 2017 2024-01-25T13:47:20 by 9 Comments

Well, another year is almost gone and so to everyone I say, Merry Christmas and a Happy Old Year! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Policy

10 Little Understood Facts About Australian Consumer Law And Solar

September 15, 2017 2024-01-25T06:53:30 by 12 Comments

 

Australian Consumer Law and Solar

While they are 10 facts and not 10 commandments, Ronald’s beard has been getting pretty Moses like lately

Here at SolarQuotes we’re all about consumers. So I am going to describe 10 features of Australian consumer law that many consumers, not to mention many solar sales companies, installers and hardware manufacturers, are unaware of.

While I am no lawyer, I have read some very thick pamphlets on consumer law and I think I have the general gist of it.  There’s no need to worry about my level of comprehension as I am very literate.  I can read with one arm tied behind my back. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Policy

Clean Energy Council Accredited Installers, Approved Retailers, And Members: What’s The Difference?

July 4, 2017 2024-10-03T10:29:12 by 13 Comments
3 types of CEC affiliate

The CEC has 3 levels of affiliation, members, installers and approved retailer. What is the difference?

The Australian Clean Energy Council, or CEC, is Australia’s peak body for solar and other renewable energy. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Policy Tagged With:

The ‘SA Energy Crisis’ Is A Myth Peddled By Liars

April 26, 2017 2017-04-27T15:07:59 by 14 Comments
protesting crowd

If you repeat a message long and loud enough many people will accept it as true.

At the start of the month I wrote that South Australia’s grid was in disarray.  I warned that more blackouts were inevitable as soon as summer rolled around again or adverse weather struck.

With my warning I wanted to give people a sense of perilous urgency on the need to do something about the dilapidated state of the grid that we depend upon for our jobs, our well being, and civilization itself.

But that was on April Fools Day.

I wasn’t serious. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Policy Tagged With: ,

Despite What The Coalition Says Or Doesn’t Say, The “Solar Rebate” Won’t End Soon

January 27, 2017 2017-07-06T11:23:12 by 9 Comments

Will they scrap the Renewable Energy Target (and by extension the ‘Solar Rebate’) or won’t they?

The Australian newspaper has reported that a couple of Coalition MPs have said Australia should scrap its Renewable Energy Target (RET) if Donald Trump dumps the United States’ commitment to the Paris climate agreement. [Read more…]

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Will Trump Take A Dump On Solar?

November 10, 2016 2017-04-18T15:12:28 by 10 Comments
usa flag in solar cells

Will Trump destroy the US clean energy industry?

Donald Trump has won the US Presidential election.  The people of the United States of America have spoken.  They haven’t spoken very well, but they have done it.  And since they will have a guy in charge who never shuts up, they’re not likely to stop now.

[Read more…]

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Australian Politicians Confuse Wind Power And Powerful Winds

September 29, 2016 2017-04-18T15:34:30 by 14 Comments
wind vs wind power

Which of our elected politicians can tell the difference? Read on to find out…

Yesterday all of South Australia was blacked out and parts of the state are still without grid power today. This occurred because a powerful storm damaged transmission lines and the entire state grid automatically shut down as a safety precaution to prevent more damage.

Restarting a grid after a complete shutdown is complex and requires several hours. And it took several hours for grid power to start to be restored.

There is no mystery to what happened. It is very simple:

1. There was a really big storm.
2. Transmission lines were damaged.
3. The grid shut down automatically as a safety precaution, like it should have.

If you don’t believe power lines were damaged by strong winds, here is a picture of high voltage, steel girder, transmission towers near Port Augusta.  The wind bent them over so their tops touch the ground.

This picture shows how unusual the situation was. Transmission towers do not normally lie down on the ground to take a rest.

In addition to gale force winds there were also so many lightning strikes they would have been countless if someone hadn’t counted them and tornadoes. As more detailed information is reported we will probably learn if it was lightning strikes, gale force winds, or a big willy willy that provided the straw that safety precautioned the camel’s back. [Read more…]

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Canberra reshuffle: Mr Coal gets the job but is it all bad news?

July 25, 2016 2017-10-25T08:22:09 by Leave a Comment
josh frydenberg

Josh Frydenberg is in charge of energy. Should we be worried?

Like experienced card sharps waiting for the deal, all eyes were on the Canberra environment portfolio reshuffles last week. This following the near-disastrous election result for the Coalition where hopes were high that Malcolm 3.0 may have “got the message” on renewable policy. [Read more…]

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Will Malcolm grow a pair on solar power policy?

July 21, 2016 2018-05-09T09:14:54 by 8 Comments
malcolm 3.0

Will Malcolm 3.0 take on the anti-solar brigade in his party, like Malcolm 1.0 did?

Last week we touched on how the newly-elected Malcolm Turnbull could take on the anti-renewables wing of his party to implement sensible and far-reaching reforms. This week we look at whether Mal 3.0 has the stomach for the fight…and what this means for solar power policy in Australia. [Read more…]

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