Solar Panels

[Quickstatus]

The sobering aspect of a FiT is that currently the electricity bill credits are partially paid for by low income consumers who are unable to afford Solar

 

[amaroo]

Electricity bills which are in credit due to solar feed in will not be sustainable in the long term with increasing takeup of solar.
The addition of supply during solar generation periods will pushing spot prices down, causing the FiT to be higher than the spot price at the same time of day.
Eventually the math will have to change and there is talk of pushing the 6-8 pm prices up as that is the period with highest demand and/or reducing FiT or putting a cap on the $amount of the FiT. Pushing the 6-8 pm prices up will make the battery economics closer to breakeven and soak up some of the excess grid export and time shift it to the 6-8pm period.
in the meantime....

The AEMO spot price at 1030am in NSW is 3.7c/kWh (or $37.5 per MWh)

The exorbitant QLD FIT expires 1st July 2028, currently we're getting a total FIT of 54.6c/kWh

We've still got the old style meter, so time of day supply is something we don't have to worry about .... just yet.

 

[get me outta here]

Yes, it is a problem that needs to be fixed to be fairer, but will only be done by a sympathetic government.

The sobering aspect of a FiT is that currently the electricity bill credits are partially paid for by low income consumers who are unable to afford Solar

 

[Flying mermaid]

We generated more in both October and November than corresponding periods last year. We will in December as well, although the smoke is definitely affecting generation. Our FiT is only 12.5c though . I would still expect a refund this quarter as we are sending over 50kwh a day to the grid and only drawing 10 to 12 per day.

 

[get me outta here]

Things are moving along:
Transparent solar cells could be used to glaze office blocks

Transparent solar cells could be used to glaze office blocks

They absorb about the same amount of light as tinted windows

www.economist.com

 

[amaroo]

State and Territory governments across Australia made some dreadful decisions with these FIT. Gross rather than net, outrageous kWh rates, huge sized systems, 20 year contracts ..... some crazy economics.

Feed-in tariffs in Australia - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[amaroo]

We generated more in both October and November than corresponding periods last year. We will in December as well, although the smoke is definitely affecting generation. Our FiT is only 12.5c though . I would still expect a refund this quarter as we are sending over 50kwh a day to the grid and only drawing 10 to 12 per day.

Make sure you clean or get someone to clean them twice a year. I've got a bloke that cleans our windows and he adds the solar panels for $5 / panel.

Dirty panels are very unproductive.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Make sure you clean or get someone to clean them twice a year. I've got a bloke that cleans our windows and he adds the solar panels for $5 / panel.

Dirty panels are very unproductive.

You are not going to get a cleaner on our roof . We get our gutters cleaned and the roof inspected twice a year and they do the panels then. It’s very steep and I would be worried about someone falling, but the roof people are experienced.

 

[amaroo]

You are not going to get a cleaner on our roof . We get our gutters cleaned and the roof inspected twice a year and they do the panels then. It’s very steep and I would be worried about someone falling, but the roof people are experienced.

A professional external building/window/roof/solar cleaning business ..... not a house cleaner, but they are probably more important!

 

[Flying mermaid]

A professional external building/window/roof/solar cleaning business ..... not a house cleaner, but they are probably more important!

Yes someone like that would be fine - the roof guys are good and they have safety equipment so they can cope with the roof.

 

[Quickstatus]

As my place is single storey, it has been very easy cleaning the panels. Currently doing it every quarter.

State and Territory governments across Australia made some dreadful decisions with these FIT. Gross rather than net, outrageous kWh rates, huge sized systems, 20 year contracts ..... some crazy economics.

Feed-in tariffs in Australia - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Im one of those oversized ones. I didnt think it was going to be accepted by AusGrid but there you go.
In the calendar months of Sep, Oct, Nov, I exported roughly 8000kWh - approx 90kWh/day
I designed the array based on historical consumption, but we are seeing a massive reduction in consumption and therefore massive grid export due to factors other than solar generation.
December has been significantly lower due to the cloudy days and bushfire haze.

 

[Quickstatus]

Massive rise in forecasted AEMO spot prices Tomorrow between 1100-1600. 1300c/kWh for NSW
The mechanism should hopefully attract generators or large consumers to jump in with supply or backoff on demand.
Wind generators will relatively idle.

 

[Quickstatus]

These bushfires have drastically cut Solar production.

 

[exceladdict]

Interested if anyone can recommend a WA supplier/installer to provide a rough price for an install on a new build (please PM)

 

[Katie]

Just got our December power bill - $6.18. November was $7.62. We're now on monthly bills with the new year long contract with Origin.

We have 15c kWh FiT, and panels with 39.9kWh potential. We were away for 11 of the days in December, and that will have helped. Our off-peak tariff has also increased when I went to the new plan in October, up from around 14c to 20c and peak stayed the same at about 24c.
December 2019 was much sunnier than Dec 2018 for us - not that there was a lot of rain in 2018, but it was rather cloudy.

 

[Quickstatus]

Are your consumption tariffs net of discounts?

My off peak tariff incl GST but after contract discounts is slightly less than the FiT.
this means there is no need to time shift any consumption from off peak period to the generation periods. So the pool pump washing machine, dishwasher runs during the off peak period

 

[Katie]

Are your consumption tariffs net of discounts?

My off peak tariff incl GST but after contract discounts is slightly less than the FiT.
this means there is no need to time shift any consumption from off peak period to the generation periods. So the pool pump washing machine, dishwasher runs during the off peak period

I don't believe we have any discounts on the consumption tariffs, due to our FiT.
(According to the online calculator, we'll be paying a bit more than Nov or Dec for Jan!)

For our situation, it's best to use high energy items during the day. On our previous plan, the night rate cost was about the same as the FiT.

 

[samh004]

I have a smaller system, and we changed from AGL in June to Red Energy, but not just for the QF points. It has worked out well, and we haven't been nearly as affected by the bushfires up on the Gold Coast as others, so the system is performing on par with last year.

Despite the slight increase in supply and usage charges, the bigger jump in FiT has actually lead to bills that are a third smaller. We went from $20 a month on average back from the power company to $40 a month.

However, we have optimised routines a lot in the past 6 months to a year, such that similar to @Katie we run the dishwasher first thing in the morning on a timer – stacked the night before, then when it is done we'll use the washing machine/dryer for clothes, making sure not to use too much at the same time. Unless it's an emergency, we don't run those appliances past dusk. So our consumption is also a bit lower. We should be sitting about $800/year for a 2-person household... but we have a lot of electronics.

	AGL	Red Energy
Supply Charge	$0.8998	$0.979
General Usage	$0.2248	$0.243
FiT	$0.106
FiT 1 for first 5 kWh/day		$0.17
FiT 2 for remainder/day		$0.115

 

[Quickstatus]

Energy Australia
Time of Use metering (GST inclusive for consumption tariffs)
Figures inclusive of discounts for direct debit and on time payment.

Peak: 0.4393 (1400-2000 hrs and November-Mar, June-Sep), no peak during public holiday or weekends
Shoulder: 0.19973 (0700-1400, 2000-2300)
Off peak: 0.1219 (2300-0700)

Feed in Tariff: 0.125
Supply: 1.0285 / day

I did a 365 day consumption spreadsheet for Red Energy using figures similar to that provided by @samh004 compared with Energy Australia and EA came out ahead

 

[Hvr]

Despite the slight increase in supply and usage charges, the bigger jump in FiT has actually lead to bills that are a third smaller. We went from $20 a month on average from the power company to $40 a month.

My bolding. It seems your bills have increased by $20 per month.

My latest electricity bill is a credit of $11.26.

I'm with GloBird.
Per KwH: FiT 12c, Usage 19.84c and daily charge $1.06