"Sunny Times Ahead" whilst we flood

Flooding Nov 2007

As the rain continued to fall yesterday leading to flooding in Gippsland and parts of Melbourne, I was reading my paper copy of Choice Magazine. "Sunny Times Ahead" detailed the findings by the Alternative Technology Association, ATA, on the payback periods for Solar Power ( PV) throughout Australia.

Whilst now is a good time to buy current solar technology, the fall in the Australian dollar will lead to an increase in the price of panels, in the short term at least. Long term, I would have thought the outlook is sunny with further reductions in costs and increases in efficiency as more research is done.
What concerned me is the question "Is bigger better?" on page 39 of the article.

In purely economic terms, the answer is no. The changes to Feed in Tariff's(FiT) have mean't that consumers are actively penalized from installing as much capacity as our roofs can stand. This means the Electricity companies are continuing to produce highly polluting, carbon rich electricity, particularly in Victoria with little thought of the environmental consequences. So if you considered only the environment, then big is certainly better!

If all the roofs in Melbourne, capable of producing solar power, were encouraged to produce and feed into the grid, then more CO2 free electricity is produced, less infrastructure in terms of new Coal Powered Generation is required. (Gas Powered generation will be required to load balance at the moment).

Research has shown that the current level of Solar Power, plus other renewable energy is reducing the cost of peak power. It is incredibly short-sighted to reduce this energy input and will make those who are poorer and don't own their own roofs more susceptible to "electricity supply gold plating". See the following article by the Age and checkout the Melbourne Energy Institute web site for more in-depth, knowledgeable articles.

That's why I have joined Solar Citizens, the ATA and the Australian Consumer Association. I want my voice to be heard, my roof to produce as much solar as it can (within my limited budget) and know that I am at least trying to reduce my environmental impact, before it all becomes irrelevant (EROEI stuff).

Sunshine in Winter

This morning was cold and crisp. Great swathes of white fog concealed the roads and the ghostly car lights meant cautious driving was needed for my trip to the local heated swimming pool.
But once I emerged, exercise having warmed my blood, the bright wintry sunshine kept my spirits warm.

My solar panels are still generating about 3 kwH per day, which is not bad, but nowhere near enough to keep my house going. Fortunately the house is designed not to need heating on these sunny winter days, until the sun goes down when the efficient wood heater kicks in.

The Melbourne Solar Conference 2013 was held yesterday and today. Barely a peep in the press until today when the Opposition Environment Spokesman Greg Hunt indicated that the Coalition promises to scrap any contracts entered into by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), set-up recently to encourage action for renewable energy.
Given this agency was set-up to be as independent from Government and was initially supported by the Coalition in Opposition, I wonder why this change has occurred.
The Coalition favours Direct Action for its Climate Change Policy. Surely ARENA would be an important mechanism for such Direct Action by funding a number of projects?? Or does the Coalition only mean to encourage Soil Carbon as its only action?
Putting all its eggs into one basket is certainly direct and dumb!
Who has been whispering sweet $$ into the Coalitions ear? The Electricity companies perhaps, whose business models of high peak electricity costs are being undermined by all the distributed generators us solar people have installed?
Certainly the car companies have demonstrated they can only surivie in Australia with Government support.
My Facebook feed generated this report http://tinyurl.com/d3oophl on the same topic in the US.
Action is certainly needed on Climate and not the Coalitions wrecking Action!!!

Going Solar Report - 1 Million Australian Households with Rooftop Solar

As Australia celebrated the passing of the 23 Million person in the country, so the Centre for Policy Development has found, 1 million households have installed rooftop Solar in its new report "Going Solar".
The ABS puts the average household size at 2.6 people, meaning 2,600,000 Australians or possibly more think having Solar on their roof will help ameliorate the anticipated electricity price rises.

Going Solar Report, Centre of Policy Development

So I will take time to sit in the sun streaming through my north facing windows and read this report. Particularly the parts on Feed-In-Tarriffs, solar consumer complaints and demographics of those who installed solar. This last relates to a previous report by Australian Government and the Solar PV Program by Andrew MacInstosh of the Australia Insitute and reported by me on 29 Nov 2010 . Equity of access to solar is a problem, but so is equity of access to housing for low-income individuals. I haven't noticed support for various schemes to encourage first home buyers to be abandoned because some can't access that scheme.

Andrew mentioned here that the take-up of solar was by the more affluent households. I would argue, from looking at the large numbers in my suburb whose socio-economic status is middle-low income, that this is not now the case. But there is no doubting that if you don't own your roof you can't invest in Solar Power.

This current report indicates that the drivers of cost reductions in the PV industry has been the large decreases in manufacturing costs as China manufactures and install more Solar. This is predicted to continue.

"Socket Parity" is the term used in this report, pg 14, to show countries whose Solar PV costs have fallen to parity or better against traditional fossil fuel electricity generation.

CPD"Going Solar"Report, pg 14

So this morning, as the temperature fell to approximately 5 degrees C, I am able to sit in the sunshine without heating and generate electricity. Go figure whats better for you, control over your own electricity use and generation or leave that up to business interests.