Solar Panel, Power & Battery Discussion

[NM]

Last year my highest consumption month was double that of the lowest consumption month

Overall winter 3 J/J/A is 50% greater than summer D/J/F

In SEQ, my consumption is significantly higher in summer (Air-Con is biggest consumer), but also aligns with highest generation period. So my excess solar is very low in summer. I find Autumn and Spring are the seasons with my highest excess generation, due to longer hours of generation and minimal AC usage. Winter generally has more excess generation that summer for me.

The only way battery makes sense for me is if I add more generation capacity, which I can only do if installing a battery. This is due to restrictions on system sizes imposed by Energex. So my costs for battery install need to include new panels installed, re-stringing my existing panels, as well as the battery itself.

If basing it on purely on current tariff rates, its very marginal for me. But if I include an assumption (reasonable I think) that tariffs will continue to increase and are nowhere near a stable/peak cost, then over a 10 year period I will be significantly better off. And beyond 10 years, hopefully it will just be a battery replacement cost as panels all have 25 year expected service life (likely more than my personal service life in this property).

 

[Quickstatus]

tariffs will continue to increase

Here is the problem

The official position for the net zero is that electricity prices will go down over time
Im struggling to reconcile that with the notion of batteries which necessarily assumes that prices will stay the same or go up.

 

[NM]

Here is the problem

The official position for the net zero is that electricity prices will go down over time
Im struggling to reconcile that with the notion of batteries which necessarily assumes that prices will stay the same or go up.

My personal opinion is that the official position is flawed and will not reflect reality *

* using terminology appropriate for posting on AFF

 

[AuSammy]

Most of the alleged x-spurt talking heads on the tellie say that renewables are the cheaper option for the nation to get off burning stuff in the longer term but to get there tariffs will go up in the short to medium term until we get over the hump of converting.

On that basis I am assuming tariffs won't improve and will probably get worse over at least the next 5 years.