Australian Premium Solar. Not made in Australia and not Premium. (Screenshot from now-deleted APS Youtube video: Caution-tape is mine)
Australian Premium Solar is a company that sells solar panels with a warranty that is truly exceptional and sets them apart from all other panels on the market. [Read more…]
The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition should be a really useful tool for solar buyers. Unfortunately it isn’t.
The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, or SVTC to its friends, is an organisation that has been working hard for over 32 years to protect this life encrusted blob of nickel and iron spinning in space that we call Earth.
SVTC campaigns to promote both safe environmental practices and ethical behavior in high tech industries. Each year since 2009 they have released a report called the SVTC Solar Scorecard that ranks solar panel manufacturers on both their environmental sustainability and ethical behavior. [Read more…]
Installing more rooftop solar is a better investment than a Powerwall 2, so always rack up as much solar on your roof as you reasonably can first. Unlike this guy.
The Tesla Powerwall 2 is going to be big. Really big. I mean that literally and not figuratively. It’s going to be big as in 13.5 kilowatt-hours of storage big. From the point of view of most Australian households that is huge.
This large capacity presents households with two main problems:
So if the average Australian home buys a Powerwall 2 they will use it at less than its full capacity. As Tesla’s warranty is fixed at a maximum of 10 years, this increases the cost of each warranted kilowatt-hour substantially.
The obvious solutions are:
Have you heard the news? The solar rebate is ending! It’s all over the internet. Or at least all over the parts of the internet that run ads from shonky solar companies. According to them, if you don’t rush out right now to get rooftop solar installed before the first of January you’ll end up paying a fortune for it! If you don’t buy now, the price of a typical 5 kilowatt rooftop solar system will rise by…
…just a second… let me work it out…
Around $263 which is about a 4% increase. [Read more…]
The full spec and warranty of the Powerwall 2 reveal a cost per warranted kWh almost half that of its nearest rival.
[Update March 13: Tesla has cancelled sales of the DC Powerwall 2 in Australia and the first installations of the AC version of the Powerwall 2 will now apparently be done in April.]
Yesterday, Tesla kindly sent me the Powerwall 2’s full data sheet and warranty. We already knew the headline specs:
Storage: 13.5kWh
Power: 5kW steady, 7kW Peak
Price: AUD$8,000 + GST and Installation
But there were lots of questions over the exact configuration and warranty details that could make or break Tesla’s shiny new battery. Most of these questions have now been answered.
Here’s what the new specs reveal: [Read more…]
Has your solar panel’s ‘product warranty’ has been magically transformed from 10 to 25 years thanks to Australian Consumer Law?
When people ask me about solar panel warranties, I tell them to look at the product warranty. This is usually for 10 or 12 years.
I tell them not to worry about the performance warranty, which is normally for 25 years or sometimes 30. You see, while most manufacturers are happy to honor their product warranties, not all of them expect to replace solar panels that fail while they are only covered by their performance warranty. [Read more…]
Tesla’s solar roof tile announcement raises more questions than it answers.
On Saturday the 29th of October, Elon Musk made an announcement that thousands of Australians were waiting to hear.
He spent 37 seconds making that announcement.
Then he spent most of the rest of the time spruiking Tesla’s new solar tiles. [Read more…]
Elon Musk proclaims the coronation of Powerwall 2.0
Today at 12:15 Eastern Standard Time, Elon Musk announced the arrival of the Tesla Powerwall 2.
Some people were enthusiastically looking forward to this announcement, but I was not. I fully expected to be underwhelmed, and as soon as Musk finished his two or three sentences on the actual system, I felt a near fatal lack of enthusiasm sweeping over me. [Read more…]
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…]
This is how I felt after spending 2 days trying to work out the best electricity plans for solar owners.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, electricity bills are confusing.
If you are one of those rare people who don’t find electricity bills confusing, then I have two things to say to you. Firstly, “Good for you”.
Secondly, “When are you returning to your home planet?” because I find it hard to believe you are human.
Because they are so confusing, it is very difficult to know which retailer offers the best plan for your household. Especially for people with rooftop solar, as they have the additional complication of accounting for feed-in tariffs. [Read more…]
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