Comments on: Cheaper Australian Rooftop Solar PV

By: RobS

RobS — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 01:02:00 +0000

Well I see Billy’s post accusing me of lying had been deleted. It’s sad that baseless accusations are the only thing solar opponents have now because all the facts overwhelmingly support solar. Here is the first page of my solar contract to prove the
Price claim I made anyway.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 23:19:00 +0000

Where did this outage happen, Jim?

How about a link that reports the place, time and cause?

By: Billy J

Billy J — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 22:33:00 +0000

Your figure are wrong, stop misleading people, show us the bill that you got it installed for that money. They are to many clowns out there with misleading information. if you look up the the figure you fine that it wrong.

Some clown posted that he got solar panels installed for $0.35 a watt which he installed “20kw” for “$7000″ .

Please post real figure and back it up with receipt.

By: john

john — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 22:20:00 +0000

I got my solar system installed for $0.35watt . It so cheap to install solar power now in Australia that without the REC. it only cost $7000 for 20kw of power .

By: Nosolar Jim

Nosolar Jim — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 22:02:00 +0000

Wrong solar power only caused the grid to trip yesterday at 2pm when the sun setting. Solar power caused the grid to go down for 5 hours. They had to start-up and old power coal power station to get the power, to bring the grid back online.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 20:12:00 +0000

Here are some recent data for AU solar. Looks like things are going well.

Perhaps not so much for the coal industry….

By: RobS

RobS — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 19:54:00 +0000

No, that is after a ~$0.55/watt REC subsidy, pre subsidy is around $2.40/watt currently in Australia.

By: agelbert

agelbert — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 18:11:00 +0000

That sounds about right. I just priced a 22 panel 240W array with a micro-inverter for each panel included (no high voltage EVER on the roof or reduced efficiency from partial shading that is caused by string inverters) at $480 a panel. That’s 5280W for $10,560 ($2/watt. Yes, I know the rack and wiring are additional but I believe the biggest problem we have in the USA, as opposed to Germany or Australia is the ridiculous permitting and administrative hoops that increase the installation price. For example, the above system is ready to go. I could put it on my lawn with almost ZERO cost or required permitting. I should be able to do that on my roof too!
Micro-inverters are pricier but the safety and reliability of having multiple units along with their efficiency (each panel is unaffected by shading on another panel) will soon make these the standard. And as more micro-inverters hit the market, they will get cheaper too.
By the way, the prices above are without subsidies. I have not bought the system as of this date. I am only shopping around.

By: agelbert

agelbert — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 17:55:00 +0000

I would like to pass this video of another growing use of PV (this one in Swanton, Vermont) for sewage treatment plants. Considering that everywhere humans are, there are sewage treatment plants, these cost saving devices are a huge potential market. Also consider that Swanton is pretty far north of the equator and most sewage treatment plants get a lot more sun.

This video came from the web site of Senator Sanders of Vermont, USA.
This is another device to help get our civilization off of fossil fuels.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 16:57:00 +0000

$1.83/watt with no subsidies?

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 16:53:00 +0000

“The Berkeley report says the differences in soft costs may be partly
attributable to differences in the cumulative size of each market, based
on the theory that larger market size allows for price reductions
through learning-by-doing and economies of scale.”

Competition.

By: JamesWimberley

JamesWimberley — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 15:31:00 +0000

Occasional reports, even from highly resprcted sources, are a poor way of keeping track of a market that changes as fast as solar. We need reliable monthly indices. Secretary Moniz needs to shake up the hidebound EIA statistics section.

By: RobS

RobS — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 14:29:00 +0000

$3.10/Watt is definitely out of date. My system has just gone in, 3kw for $5,500 fully installed, which works out at $1.83/watt. That’s on a steep pitched roof which required a cherry picker and falls harnesses adding to the installation cost, would have been ~$1.60/watt if not for the difficult install. That’s also in Tasmania where we get the least number of REC’s would have been below $1.50 per watt in Queensland.