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Graph of the Day: Super-sizing rooftop solar systems

Giles Parkinson
4

It was just a few years ago when a modest 1.5kW rooftop solar system – the equivalent of around six panels – was the norm for Australian households.

How that is changing. As today’s Graph of the Day – courtesy of Warwick Johnston’s Sunwiz Consulting – shows, barely 10 per cent of the rooftop solar systems installed in Australia now are of that size.

Already, the average size of a rooftop solar system around the country is 3kW – and many of the new systems are well above that. According to Johnston’s data, 5kW systems are now the most popular in the progressive “solar” states such as Queensland and South Australia – while 3kW remains the most popular in NSW and W.A. That is probably a reflection of the tariffs paid for exports to the grid.

Of course, Australia still has some way to go to catch up with the US – where according to SunPower, which specializes in solar leasing products, the average size of rooftop solar systems has gone to 8.3kW.

That’s got something to do with the size of the roofs, and also the tariff measures. Most places in the US get a 1:1 tariff, so the incentive is there to put on a larger system.

“That’s a really big system,” Sunpower’s products chief Jack Peurach conceded during an analysts briefing earlier this month. “You are putting as much PV on your roof as you can, but you are putting it there because you want to generate as much electricity as you can.  And you do that because it’s cheaper.”

 

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4 responses to “Graph of the Day: Super-sizing rooftop solar systems”

  1. Ben N Avatar
    Ben N

    Is this graph for a particular year?

  2. Louise Avatar
    Louise

    If you build new buildings/residential subdivisions, then it is cheaper to build island/off-grid energy autonomous buildings than to continue the old way of laying cables to houses.

    The old way is becoming rapidly functionally obsolete.

    It costs approximately $20,000 dollars per dwelling if you build a new residential subdivision and put cables in the ground.

    If the developer of a residential subdivision would purchases PV equipment the houses could be electrified permanently for the same amount of money.

    If you were to order 1000 times 10kW PV panels and inverters you could be purchasing at high volume wholesale price, which is as low as US$0.45 FOB per watt for PV panels and US$110 FOB per kW inverter capacity, and have the goods ship to an Australian port.

    After adding up all the accumulating costs involved and added the 10% GST you would end up with a price of less than Au$7500 dollars for 10kW PV panels and inverters.

    You would still have the cost of installing the equipment.

    How much does that cost?

    Total cost – equipment cost – installation cost

    $20,000 minus $7,500 equals $12,500.

    Even if the cost of installation were to cost $12,500 dollars to install a 10kW solar system, (the gold plated price), it would be as expensive as providing the electricity connection to a residential home.

    The difference is the energy self-sufficient house would not have the quarterly electricity bills that the grid connected house has.

    There is something seriously wrong with the way we keep insisting on propping up regional monopolies.

    Go 100% renewables now, not in 100 years from now.

    If you were to build self-sufficient buildings, what do you need the grid for?

    Isn’t the grid only assisting those who want to maintain the “Master and Servant” relationship that high earning utility executives like so much?

    There are around 60 companies, who either have island/off-grid systems on the market, or have announced, that they will be introducing them over the next year or two.

    http://www.younicos.com/en

    http://www.kolibri-ag.com/en/kolibrirack1.html

    http://bosch-solar-storage.com/technology/lithium-battery/

    – Siemens

    – BAE Batterien GmbH

    – IBC Solar AG

    – Kostal, Litron GmbH

    – Nedap NV – Energy Systems

    – SolarWorld AG

    – Prosol Invest Deutschland GmbH

    – Varta Storage GmbH

    – ASD Sonnenspeicher

    – and many more.

    .

  3. Louise Avatar
    Louise

    If you build new
    buildings/residential subdivisions, then it is cheaper to build
    island/off-grid energy autonomous buildings than to continue the
    old way of laying cables to houses.

    The old way is becoming rapidly
    functionally obsolete.

    It costs approximately $20,000
    dollars per dwelling if you build a new residential subdivision
    and put cables in the ground.

    If the developer of a residential
    subdivision would purchases PV equipment the houses could be
    electrified permanently for the same amount of money.

    If you were to order 1000 times
    10kW PV panels and inverters you could be purchasing at high
    volume wholesale price, which is as low as US$0.45 FOB per watt
    for PV panels and US$110 FOB per kW inverter capacity, and have
    the goods ship to an Australian port.

    After adding up all the
    accumulating costs involved and added the 10% GST you would end up
    with a price of less than Au$7500 dollars for 10kW PV panels and
    inverters.

    You would still have the cost of
    installing the equipment.

    How much does that cost?

    Total cost – equipment cost –
    installation cost

    $20,000 minus $7,500 equals
    $12,500.

    Even if the cost of installation
    were to cost $12,500 dollars to install a 10kW solar system, (the
    gold plated price), it would be as expensive as providing the
    electricity connection to a residential home.

    The difference is the energy
    self-sufficient house would not have the quarterly electricity
    bills that the grid connected house has.

    There is something seriously
    wrong with the way we keep insisting on propping up regional
    monopolies.

    Go 100% renewables now, not in
    100 years from now.

    If we were to build
    self-sufficient buildings, what do we need the grid for?

    Isn’t the grid only assisting
    those who want to maintain the “Master and Servant” relationship
    that high earning utility executives like so much?

    There are around 60 companies,
    who either have island/off-grid systems on the market, or have
    announced, that they will be introducing them over the next year
    or two.

    1. New World Ebola Avatar
      New World Ebola

      great post… couldn’t agree more.

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