Rooftop solar versus a home battery: which pays back first
A homeowner in Reservoir rang me last month with a quote in hand: 10kW of rooftop solar plus a 10kWh battery, bundled, $19,000 after rebates, five-year payback promised on the glossy sheet. I asked the obvious question. Payback on what, exactly — the whole system, or just the panels? He didn’t know. Neither did the […]
How rooftop solar feed-in tariffs actually work in 2026
Check your solar retailer’s rate card right now and you’ll probably see two numbers that don’t look like they belong to the same product: something like 3c/kWh for power exported between 10am and 3pm, and 15c or more for the same electrons pushed out between 4pm and 9pm. That’s not a typo and it’s not […]
Negative electricity prices at midday: what they mean for you
Around 1pm on a clear day last week, the wholesale price in South Australia dropped to minus $60 a megawatt-hour. Not a blip — it sat below zero for the better part of four hours. If you’d asked me a decade ago whether generators would ever pay the grid to take their electricity, I’d have […]
Australia’s Consumer Energy Resources roadmap: what it means on the ground
Somewhere around 3.6 million Australian households now have rooftop solar. That number has been cited so often it’s started to lose its weight, but consider what it actually means for the grid: roughly one in three detached homes in the NEM is, in principle, a small generator. The Consumer Energy Resources roadmap — released by […]
SunCable’s Australia-Asia PowerLink: where things stand in 2026
Roughly 4,200 kilometres of high-voltage direct-current subsea cable. A solar farm in the Northern Territory that would cover more ground than some Australian suburbs put together. And a collapse, in January 2023, that stopped one of the most ambitious energy export proposals ever put to paper. Three and a half years on from that administration […]
Solar-Powered Air Conditioning in Australia
In Australia, as energy costs increase and temperatures rise, more businesses and households are seeking more efficient, sustainable cooling solutions like solar-powered air conditioning. Solar-powered air conditioners, or photovoltaic air conditioning (PV), are gaining in popularity. These systems use the plentiful Australian sun to power cooling units and reduce reliance on traditional electricity grids. Solar air conditioners, […]
How Solar Energy Is Helping Australia?
In Australia, as energy prices continue to increase, households are increasingly looking for environmentally-friendly, reliable and cost-effective alternatives. Taking meaningful steps towards sustainability is also becoming more important. Solar energy is one of the best solutions for Australian home owners. It’s a renewable, clean power source that makes the most of Australia’s abundance of sunshine. Australia has […]
Australia’s Rooftop Solar Success
Australia’s Journey to Clean Energy shows how Australia became the global leader in rooftop solar. The work of thousands of skilled installers in Australia, including many small business owners, has made this milestone possible. They have not only contributed to the growth of clean power, but they also helped create local jobs, boost economic prosperity […]
Who Really Pays For Solar?
Do you know who really pays for solar energy? As the world races toward a cleaner, greener future, solar energy is at the forefront of the renewable revolution. With governments offering incentives, businesses touting long-term savings, and households eager to reduce power bills, solar power seems like an easy win. But scratch the surface, and […]