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Rooftop solar panels: our new peaking power generators
The debate on meeting peak demand usually overlooks the contribution of renewables. The CSIRO has shown that a collection of rooftop solar panels, combined with sophisticated forecasting techniques and a small amount of energy storage, can look to the grid just like a traditional fossil-fueled generator.7 -
Solar Insights: Is solar hot water (and cooling) the next big thing?
Remember those tubes on the roof? Solar hot water is making a comeback, along with a new brother-in-arms, solar cooling. Plus, latest data shows another strong month for PV installations in Australia, and trying to predict the world’s three biggest PV markets. -
Solar Insights: Is solar PV only for the rich?
The plunging costs of solar PV and the arrival of new financing options is demolishing the idea that the technology is just a privileged plaything of the rich. Welcome to mass-market solar PV. The irony, however, is that it’s the very wealthy who are helping make this possible. -
How big utilities propose to kill solar PV
Solar PV is not just a game-changer to the energy industry, it is the biggest threat to established business models in a generation. But utilities will not go down without a fight, and are contemplating a range of tactics, including changes to metering, tariffs and capacity restraints. Will politicians let them get away with it? -
Can-do Campbell slashes Queensland solar PV tariffs
Campbell Newman closes down solar incentives in the Sunshine State, which had accounted for nearly half of Australian rooftop installations in recent months. Nearly half of the 11,000 solar jobs in the state are now considered at risk. Expect a last minute rush for installations – but will new financing plans then take up the slack? -
Solar Insights: Global PV market to treble in three years
The global market for solar PV is expected to treble by 2015, producing panels at less than half the current cost. That will be the signal for the major electronics giants to enter the market. Plus: Martin Ferguson says rooftop solar killing gas, not coal. -
Solar Insights: why solar will win the energy wars
Last week’s surge in solar PV production in Germany is just a taste of what’s to come. And with solar PV costs to fall below coal by the end of the decade, the energy industry is about to be turned on its head. Plus, Yingli’s “hockey stick” demand prediction. (Warning: This story contains graphs that owners of conventional power plants may find disturbing).
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