Solar Power in Suburbia - An Australian Perspective on a Global Solution

Ian — Fri, 23 May 2008 04:47:00 GMT

Empowering Yourself

We finally took the plunge and took advantage of the many rebates on offer to have a grid connect solar system installed at our home. Too much of the media at the time was concentrating on industry wide solutions to the energy crisis in the face of global warming. Under the Liberal Government of the day, thought was moving towards Nuclear power with official studies even recommending sites close to us in Bribie Island and world famous Noosa. Quite frankly - the concept of a nuclear power plant within 50km of my home made me scared for my kids future. A radiation leak is something you can't see coming. It will just affect you. Why wreck a beautiful natural and protected area with a massive nuclear power plant? The push by the governmetn to make nuclear seem like the only option for our future power needs made me think that waiting for the government to make the right decision for us was just not going to work and that if I wanted a secure energy future I would have to take matters into my own hands...

The deciding factors

Grid Connect or off the grid?

Until the last decade or so, the only people installing solar power in their homes were those that either had no electricity service to their home, or the cost of connecting it up due to distance to the power poles was prohibitive. These off-the-grid systems are totally self-sufficient. They have a bank of batteries that are and charged and provide electricity throughout the day and night. Often generators are utilised to provide top up power when the sun has not provided enough energy for the usage required.

Nowadays it is more common to see the Grid Connect system of Solar install where a home is already connected to an electricity grid. This system does not utilise batteries. Solar panels are installed on your roof and through an inverter which converts it from 24-48v DC to 240 AC, provides electricity to power your home. The connection to the grid remains, allowing a two way flow of electricity. If you make excess power to your needs, the electricity flows back into the grid and is utilised by your neighbours. If you need more power than you are making it simply draws the required current back from the grid - eg. at night when no power is made. The system is totally transparent in that you notice no difference where the power is coming from as sophisticated technology in the invertor sychronises the internal system with the grid. There is only one major disadvantage to the grid connect system in that when there is a blackout on the grid, your system will also shut down as the power company does not want power leaking back into the system while they are attempting repairs.

There is one other type of system which is grid connect with battery backup. This would allow you to continue running during a blackout, but requires the use of another inverter and a battery bank. The cost of setup is several thousand dollars. It may be more efficient to have a small generator for use during blackouts (depending on how often you get blackouts though I suppose!)

Being already connected to the electicity grid, we decided to investigate whether a grid connect solar system would be viable for us to install.

Our roof was already at the correct angle of about 30 degrees and facing north which is perfect. This allow the installers to bolt the panels straight onto rails and onto our roof. If you have a flat roof, angled brackets will be used to create the correct angle to face the sun. If you don't have a north facing roof (southern hemisphere), you can actually get stand-alone systems that mount on a pole in your garden which not as aesthically pleasing but may provide better power generation. These stand-alone system can also utilise a sun tracker that uses various systems to follow the sun during its transition of the day. This optimises power generation. I looked into whether roof mounted systems can utilise a sun tracker but have found no information at all on a possible solution.

COST

At around $14,000, a modest 1kilowatt solar power system is beyond the reach of ordinary Australians. With the grants currently on offer though, it brings the price down to the equivalent of a large screen LCD or plasma TV.

The Australian Federal Government provides a solar rebate of $8 per watt up to a maximum of $8000. This means that a 1kw system is attracts the maximum rebate at the mimimum install cost and provides the best value. After this rebate alone, the fully installed system will come down to around $6000.

A recent development in this grant is the Rudd government's application of a $100,000 household income means test to the grant. This will mean that many Australian families would no longer be eligible for the grant and will scrap their intentions to install. I think the Rudd government is misguided in its use of this means test. I think giving all Australian's incentive to invest in our energy future including those on higher incomes is certainly the best model. Many ordinary working couples now earn over the threshold and will almost definitely not install a system now.

If you are reading this blog and you a solar panel owner or potential owner... Come and discuss your experiences with other owners in the Australian Solar Panel Owners Group forums of this website.

Another aspect to cost savings is the Renewable Energy Certificates or RECS that are given with the install of the system. These RECS are certificates created by the federal government to meet the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target to combat climate change. The RECS are worth a paper value and are traded by agents. Often the installer of your system will offer to purchase the RECS off you at a certain rate and even take it off the total price of install.

After the $8000 rebate and the purchase of our RECS, our fully installed $14,000 solar system cost us only $3700.

HIDDEN COSTS AND BENEFITS

Our home resides on the side of a hill with a steep roof that sits many metres off the ground. After initially inspecting the premises, the installer insisted on having a scissor lift to ferry the panels etc to the roof and give them an anchor point for ropes. This was something we had to cough up for - most hire places supply them at around $250-400 a day. We got it for the weekend for the same price and did some house painting to offset the cost.

The solar provider was initially going to install 6 x 167w panels (1002w), but they ran out of them, so we ended up with 7x 163w panels (1134w) for the same cost. They didn't get any argument on that one!

RETURNS

Once installed a grid connect system requires virtually no maintenance. If you want to maintain the highest possible output of your panels you can clean them every 6 months or so as they do get some dust and bird poo on them - generally though the rain does a good job. Therefore, you are left to sit back and watch your energy bills get reduced.

The reality of how much power and therefore money saved you get out of a 1kw system depends on a few factors. After our system was installed it rained for 3 months... solid... not kidding... The panels were outputting very low wattage per day and therefore we didn't offset much power - in fact it was only around $35 for around 2.5 months. In our last 3 month bill period we have had many more sunny days. This resulted in around $90 in electricity being saved or just over 1/3 of our bill which ended up being $140 total.

Another factor is what price your energy retailer will pay for the power you are feeding back into the grid. Make no mistake - the power you are making is green power - the energy company can resell this power at a higher rate to other customers. Why then shouldn't you be getting a higher amount off your bill. Some retailers are realising this an our current supplier buys power off us from cent 1 at a higher rate than we pay for power. That means that you don't have to be a net producer of power to get the higher buyback rate - every watt you make comes off your bill at a higher rate. Check with your power company for details and find one that works for you in your state.

The billing works by having two meters - the original one measures your power usage from the grid and the other measures how much power you have made. When they come to read the meters they take down two figures. The power you make is then taken away from the power you use to create a total. With a higher than standard rate feed-in tariff, like we enjoy, the power you make is calculated at the different rate and then taken away from the total giving you even higher cost benefits.

Always check your bills though. When we switched retailers, they managed to add the power from both our electricity meters together! Instead of getting a refund for the power we made, we were charged to make it! I sorted that one out in a hurry.

In countries such as Germany the government has set a much higher rate for this "feed in tariff" making the installation of solar power systems an investment in the future. I saw one documentary where a pig farmer had moved to creating a large solar array in one of his fields because it was providing better returns! South Australia provides such a scheme at the moment, but it is only for net producers, so you would need to install over a 2.5kw system to gain the benefits.

The cost of electricity keeps rising. As long as the tariff paid for the green power we make rises with it, the offsetting effects should continue. At a cost of $3,700 it will still take us around 10 years to recoup the money we outlaid on the system. But this is an investment.. in the future. There are of course some other benefits.

Increase the value of your home

Surveys such as one conducted by realestate.com.au suggest that 73% of buyers believe that having one of more energy efficient features in a home will make it more saleable. Think about it - you are in the market for a home and there are two homes you like - one home comes with an automatic 1/3 rebate on its power bill forever and another doesn't - which one looks more attractive?

Offset your carbon usage

Of course these days people are much more aware that they are creating a carbon footprint on the earth. Everything you do these days creates emmisions. Not many thinks offset it - you can plant more trees, change your lifestyle, but this is one way to not only make a difference, but actually see what that difference is. The new digital inverters have built in co2 offset reading for the power you are making. Australian's produce over 17 tonnes of co2 per person compared with OECD average of 11 tonnes. You can see here that in 6 months we have offset 486kg of co2 - a small amount but as start nonetheless.

Thinking more about your power usage

Having lived on only water tanks for several years, we knew what it felt like to live under a forced water restricition scheme. Every week we could peer into our tank and see how much water was left. Judging by the rainfall of the season we could adjust our water usage to suit our availability of water. Having a huge water network with massive dams makes it very hard for people to quantify how much they are using every week - having a localised system puts you in control of your own destiny with only you to blame if it runs out.

Put this into the context of electricity, a solar system with output readings for how much power you are making makes you much more aware of your electricity use. Things like turning off lights when you are using them, replacing bulbs with compact flourescent or led bulbs, having power boards that can be turned off with your feet or something like the power genie where turning off one product turns off many others - to reduce stop standby power usage. Standby power usage accounts for up to 12% of your total power bill! There are many ways to reduce your usage. Having a solar system just makes you think more about how you can reduce your bill.

Conclusion

Get out there and investigate how a solar system would work with your home. For the cost of an LCD TV you can get a device that not only provides you with monthly returns, but also offsets your carbon usage and put you in charge of your own energy future. There are two ways for government to invest in renewable energy - either through massive infrastrafructure project funding or through the application of rebates to individuals to create the same effect. I think the future for Australia involves a synergy of the two. Both the large scale investment in big energy projects and through partnering with individual families to shoulder part of the cost burdens of moving to renewable energy. This will empower Australians to take a stake in their future rather than just waiting to see what the government does for them.

How was your experience getting a solar system installed? Are you currently in the process.. Come and discuss your experiences with other owners in the Australian Solar Panel Owners Group forums of this website.

Smallfootprints ECO Blog : Solar Power

Solar Power in Suburbia - An Australian Perspective on a Global Solution