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…]

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…]