• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
One Step Off The Grid

One Step Off The Grid

Solar, storage and distributed energy news

  • Solar
  • Battery/Storage
  • Off-Grid
  • Efficiency
  • Software
  • Podcasts
  • Tariffs
  • Electric Vehicles
  • Electrification

Should "invisible" rooftop PV be discouraged?

July 5, 2017 by Luke Osborne 1 Comment

The boom of solar in Australia is great, but traditional PV systems are essentially invisible to our networks and our markets. And that's problematic.

Linkedin
I gave a talk this week in which I raised the question of whether traditional rooftop PV should be discouraged. This might sound strange coming from someone who has dedicated a whole career to renewables!
Right now in Australia we are adding rooftop PV at an unprecedented rate – 93MW last month in a comparatively small national grid.
We considered it a huge market event closing Hazelwood, a 1.6GW brown coal generator in March.
This solar boom will push rooftop solar toward 7GW within 12 months – surely much more momentous in our wholesale market.
Huge electricity price rises due out tomorrow will further fuel this market. Grid parity used to be seen as a distant point on the horizon – but we blew past that pretty fast here in Australia and the gap widens as panel prices plummet.
It is now crazy not to have solar in this country.
It’s great – but all this does pose challenges for our system operator AEMO and for our networks which must deal with the reverse power flows.
Traditional PV systems are essentially invisible to our networks and our markets. For a small cost, a gateway can be installed on these solar systems which makes them visible to both the market operator and to the network.
These gateways can also dynamically manage feed-in, ramp rates, and power factor to help the grid via a Virtual Power Plant interface. And they make the site truly battery ready.
Whilst we still have time to avoid the next energy mess, should consider incentivising consumers to choose a gateway with their solar – given the cost of doing so is modest?
Disclaimer: I of course work for Reposit which produces gateways and a VPP interface – which I hope speaks volumes about how important I think this topic is!
Source: Linkedin. Reproduced with permission.

Filed Under: Solar

Primary Sidebar

Sign up for our weekly newsletter

Emissions Counter

Renew Economy

RSS Energy News from Renew Economy

  • Snowy profits steady amid pumped hydro strains, while CEO Barnes sees his take-home benefits sink below $2 million
  • “Reset 3.0” doesn’t answer the biggest questions about Snowy’s $25 billion-plus pumped hydro gamble
  • Energy Insiders Podcast: Fast lane to electric, and Snowy blowouts
  • Energy efficiency has finally become an election talking point, but for all the wrong reasons
  • “What’s better, gas or starvation?” Pipeline giant’s extraordinary response to Beetaloo critics

RSS Electric Vehicle News from The Driven

  • Power tool supplier signs deal for 130 Škoda EVs in one of the biggest electric fleet deals in Australia
  • Transport giant buys Australia’s first solar-powered battery-electric refrigeration unit after 1,671 km freight trial
  • Suburban bus depot to be upgraded to support charging for up to 85 electric buses
  • World’s biggest battery maker combines swappable batteries with range-extender for heavy-duty electric trucks
  • “We know V2G works:” Biggest commercial vehicle-to-grid trial to test revenue lines for government EV fleet

Press Releases

  • Huge luxury Saudi resort goes 100pct renewables with one of world’s biggest batteries
  • How solar + storage can be a game-changer for people with disabilities
  • Contact
  • Advertise with us
  • About One Step Off The Grid
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy

Footer

Technologies

  • Solar
  • Battery/Storage
  • Electric Vehicles
  • Energy Efficiency
  • Software/Gadgets
  • Other Renewables
  • Policy
  • Tariffs
  • Contact
  • Advertise with us
  • About One Step Off The Grid
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2026 · OneStep Genesis on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in