One Step Off The Grid
Solar, storage and distributed energy news
WA solar installer says increasing consumer concern about future risk – both in terms of what power bills will look like, and the services they’re going to get from the grid – is shifting attitudes to going off grid in regional areas.
Canadian documentary “Life Off Grid” asks more than 200 people why they decided to quit the grid. We talked to film producer Phillip Vannini about the types of “off-gridder” and why he now thinks going off grid is not the answer to the world’s energy problems.
Redflow has established a battery lab in Kent Town Adelaide, to support the imminent launch of its residential zinc bromine flow battery, and to ensure it works with a range of inverters.
Longreach Airport in Queensland’s north-west has installed a 99kW solar system, driven by a commitment to quit coal generated energy, and electricity bill savings in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Western Australia’s largest rooftop solar system has been installed, and will supply 30% of the shopping centre’s electricity needs.
The home of the Victorian Greens leader has become the first in the state to install a Tesla Powerwall battery, alongside a 5kW solar system. Barber says solar plus storage is the only way to tackle Victoria’s “perverse” energy markets.
A craft brewery in country Victoria has called for industry-wide renewable energy and sustainability goals, after successfully installing a 50kW solar system that will cover all of the beer maker’s electricity needs.
A community-based effort to shift the regional Victorian town of Yackandandah to 100% renewable energy by 2022 has kicked off with the launch of a 90kW solar array on the town’s health services centre.
AGL Energy has released a new version of its energy management app that includes data on customers’ rooftop solar performance, and “in future” could allow them to trade directly with the grid.
Not all solar and storage systems are created equal. New energy management solutions – targeting the Australian market first – are hitting the market. There’s no point replicating the dumb grid inside your home.
