Solar Quotes Blog

Are those cheap solar panels grey imports?

solar panels in a box

Recently, a number of people have asked me about parallel or ‘grey’ imports of solar panels. Parallel imports are defined as products (in our case, solar panels) that are imported unofficially by someone other than the manufacturer or their official Australian distributors. Interestingly, in this day and age with so much online and internet based […]

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Clive Palmer: renewable energy hero? Or a publicity-seeking miner/politician?

clive palmers head on a green heroes body

So Big Clive Palmer is suddenly a renewable energy hero? And wants to be revered as the saviour of the clean energy sector? According to some press coverage, the Queensland fossil fuel mining superstar has single handedly changed the climate change debate in our country. Not for me. Let’s be very careful before we anoint […]

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Fossil Fuel Subsidies are a Joke

I’m getting a lot of comments on Facebook at the moment along the lines of: “Solar needs to stand on its own two feet without subsidies of any kind”. What these commenters (and our government) seem to miss is that fossil fuels in Australia – and around the world – are massively more subsidised than […]

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A common sense way to combine photovoltaics and biofuel crops

Every now and then we like to take a look at what’s happening in solar energy research, weigh the pros and cons and see how it will play out in our wide, brown land. This week we’ve got a beauty. We’ll look at a novel way to combine (the word is co-locate) two forms of […]

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How the IPA poisons renewable energy policy in Australia

Ever wondered why our government is so quick to destroy clean energy initiatives? Why the great work of agencies such as ARENA is ignored? How the green sector rarely gets a look in when it comes to energy policy? One clue as to the source of this ‘slash-and-burn’ mentality may lie in the influence of a […]

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Tindo Solar’s Support For An Anti-Dumping Investigation Is Bad For The Australian Solar Industry And The Environment

boxing kangaroo

  Today I’d like to welcome a new contributor to the SolarQuotes blog – Ronald Brakels. Ronald is technically minded and has a lot of passion for the Australian renewable energy industry, and is not afraid to put his opinion forth. I’m not always going agree with every opinion Ronald holds – but I always enjoy how he articulates […]

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Major CSIRO solar breakthrough underlines ARENA’s worth

CSIRO solar tower with mirror array.

Further evidence emerged this week from the CSIRO of the value of the embattled Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to the nation. ARENA, you may well recall, is at the centre of the current government’s ideological campaign against renewable energy with its very existence now in doubt through savage proposed budget cuts. The breakthrough was the successful […]

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Liberal moderates in NSW stand up over RET review

nsw blues badge

Will clean energy be the blade that slices apart the ruling Coalition party? Will the fossil-fuel-stacked renewable energy target review panel fall on its dark arts? This week saw the potential for a factional clash of almighty proportions with the NSW government announcing their full support for the renewable energy target (RET) of 20 percent […]

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Solar Power For Your Home: The Absolute Basics

an infographic describing solar power fundamentals

Back to absolute basics today on the SolarQuotes blog! Here’s an infographic I got drawn up that explains the fundamental concepts you need to understand before buying solar for your home. Yes, yes – I know for many of you dear readers this is completely obvious! But trust me, many folks out there starting on their […]

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Solar Isolator Switch Recall. What you need to know.

solar isolator switches

We’ve recently had a number of phone calls from people who have heard about the national solar isolator switch recall recently announced by the ACCC, and are worried about their solar systems. Here’s what you need to know about the Solar Isolator Switch Recall:

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