Solar Panels

[NM]

The best resource I found for relatively independent views and what appears to be knowledge-based and well researched information, was solarquotes.com.au. If you are just looking for the cheapest installation, don't go looking at solarquotes. But f you wants some independent views then the blogs there make interesting reading. Another good resource is the Clean Energy Council web site.

 

[cove]

We are doing a 100kW system in Adelaide and there is a new 100kW inverter from ABB in the list of materials. The manufacturing plant runs 7 days a week so we won’t be donating much to the grid. No need for a battery under these circumstances.

 

[NM]

I ran some numbers last night on how my power bill would have been effected over the last 6 months if I had a 13.5kWh battery installed. The saving to my bill (or additional credit) would have been around $107. At that rate, a $10K "investment" for a 13.5kWh battery would take 50 years to recoup. Will check again after I have the raw usage/generation numbers for the summer period, but its unlikely to stack up for any financial viability with current circumstances. The difference between feed-in and usage tariff is not great enough to justify the capital cost at this time. Of course two things may change over time - capital cost reduction and greater gap between feed-in and usage tariff. But at today's conditions, it is not viable for my circumstances.

 

[Flying mermaid]

I ran some numbers last night on how my power bill would have been effected over the last 6 months if I had a 13.5kWh battery installed. The saving to my bill (or additional credit) would have been around $107. At that rate, a $10K "investment" for a 13.5kWh battery would take 50 years to recoup. Will check again after I have the raw usage/generation numbers for the summer period, but its unlikely to stack up for any financial viability with current circumstances. The difference between feed-in and usage tariff is not great enough to justify the capital cost at this time. Of course two things may change over time - capital cost reduction and greater gap between feed-in and usage tariff. But at today's conditions, it is not viable for my circumstances.

we did the numbers when setting up our system and a battery made no sense at all. We have 6 months of the year where we pretty consume everything we produce

Our worst month was probably June, where we generated 583kwh and consumed 2.25 Mwh. October so far we have generated 1.25 mwh and consumed 1.01 and it will will improve on that over the next few months, but it is never going to make a battery cost effective, particularly with high usage during the day.

 

[DC3]

Don’t forget the battery convenience for the ‘after hours’ period. I would make good use of most of the 13.5KW during the evening/night. Not a high user by day. I will need battery storage.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

No batteries for me as the way I read my FiT agreement, I'll lose it with batteries. So after 2028, I'll revisit that idea and determine if a battery makes financial sense. I've loosely thought of electric vehicles to store the excess power, saving fuel costs, however I'm not sure how that will work. I'm guessing the batteries don't change like in a portable power tool and I have no desire to have two electric cars.

 

[moa999]

and I have no desire to have two electric cars.

You may not have a choice in a few years. With Euro emissions targets reportedly dropping fuel consumption targets to 2.5L/100km by 2030 I expect PHEV (Petrol hybrid electric vehicles) to become the standard for most Euro manufacturers (if not full electric).
PHEV will pair a small electric battery capable of say 80-100km (which lowers cost and weight penalty)(and covers the majority of city journeys) with a small petrol engine for range extension.

No point paying for a 400km electric battery if you barely use it.

 

[NM]

Don’t forget the battery convenience for the ‘after hours’ period. I would make good use of most of the 13.5KW during the evening/night. Not a high user by day. I will need battery storage.

Yes, that is exactly what I did consider when running the numbers. The battery would have dropped my consumption to zero on most days, with only small amounts of consumption from the grid during consecutive cloudy days (my numbers are all real numbers as measured by my system on a daily basis). And the recharging of the battery each day reduces the amount fed back to the grid. So the cost saving is the difference between the decreased feed-in tariff earned and the reduced cost of purchasing from the grid.

In the 6 month period observed, there were about 5 times when the battery would not have supplied sufficient energy to reduce grid consumption to nil, which were normally on days following a previously cloudy day when the battery would not have achieved full charge.

 

[docjames]

The best resource I found for relatively independent views and what appears to be knowledge-based and well researched information, was solarquotes.com.au. If you are just looking for the cheapest installation, don't go looking at solarquotes. But f you wants some independent views then the blogs there make interesting reading. Another good resource is the Clean Energy Council web site.

NM thanks for posting this - solarquotes looks a great website and has at the very least given me some understanding of the different "pieces of the puzzle" in a de-technicalised way (!).

Thanks for sharing.

 

[moa999]

The Whirlpool Green tech sub-forum is also worth a read and a good place to ask questions.
Green tech - Whirlpool Forums

 

[Quickstatus]

@JessicaTam

6.5kW solar system ordered this morning for installation in January. Must remember not to spend up big on Chrissie presents!

May I ask how many clam shells they are quoting?

 

[cove]

We should have the 100 kilowatt system in SA completed next week. Should be our best one so far. Costing a tad over $100,000. Designed by Pangolin who are consultants.
I do enjoy reading our power bills these days.

 

[Quickstatus]

We should have the 100 kilowatt system in SA completed next week. Should be our best one so far. Costing a tad over $100,000. Designed by Pangolin who are consultants.
I do enjoy reading our power bills these days.

How close is demand to supply

 

[cove]

Reasonably close. We had to consider a number of factors including weight on the roof as well as the power being used in the manufacturing so that is why we engaged a consultant to achieve the desired goals.

 

[tgh]

Neighbour ,who has recently built the ugliest house in the area, has made it worse this week by erecting a virtual forest of panels on the roof.
I'm guessing 25kw but it may be more; will fly the drone over some time and count them.

 

[jb747]

If you live in Victoria, it may be worth your while to have a look at 'time of day' feed in tariffs.

Last August, the FiT changed, and the authority that comes up with the amount had given the power companies a choice of two. They could go with a fixed FiT of about 9.5c/kw, or with a variable one, of 7.1c prior to 10am, 10.3c between 10am and 3pm, and 29c after 3pm. Most of the companies jumped on the fixed rate, as that represented a reduction in the FiT.

It doesn't take much maths to realise that the variable system results in an overall average that is higher than the fixed. The actual figure will vary depending upon the layout of your installation...the more western panels the higher the rate.

For me, the change to this tariff (it is offered by Energy Australia) has made a substantial difference to the value of my system.

The variable rate will become mandatory in August 2019.

 

[JessicaTam]

@JessicaTam


May I ask how many clam shells they are quoting?

Slightly more per kW than @cove’s system.

 

[moa999]

Does anyone have or researched the more aesthetic black or slimline panels?

And has anyone used micro inverters over a regular inverter.

My parents have moved into a perfect property for solar with a north facing 70sqm roof on about a 30 degree slope but being quite visible from the street are a little conscious of aesthetics, and while it's relatively good shade wise there is a very annoying tall palm tree that will cast shadows.

 

[JessicaTam]

Does anyone have or researched the more aesthetic black or slimline panels?

And has anyone used micro inverters over a regular inverter.

My parents have moved into a perfect property for solar with a north facing 70sqm roof on about a 30 degree slope but being quite visible from the street are a little conscious of aesthetics, and while it's relatively good shade wise there is a very annoying tall palm tree that will cast shadows.

I can lend you a chainsaw!

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Does anyone have or researched the more aesthetic black or slimline panels?

And has anyone used micro inverters over a regular inverter.

My parents have moved into a perfect property for solar with a north facing 70sqm roof on about a 30 degree slope but being quite visible from the street are a little conscious of aesthetics, and while it's relatively good shade wise there is a very annoying tall palm tree that will cast shadows.

I may show my age here, but the nice black panels were generally amorphous panels, whilst better in many respects, their biggest downfall was that they produced a lower wattage output for their given area, meaning a larger roof area was needed to gain the desired output (can't accurately remember but +30% rings a bell) . Whilst not critical to all, for my 30kW, it basically ruled them out. Another more minor downside was their temperature degradation.

Microinverters are a great concept and for ground mount arrays, I'd recommend them. For roof arrays, I'd be cautious. One inverter on a wall in the garage can easily be replaced or serviced, many inverters under the panels on a roof may become problematic.