Australian rooftop solar system providing power at all times
under the current government’s lack of incentives, rooftop solar is not economically attractive … until now.”
urban consumers wanted access to the grid to ensure they had power at all times.
“This achieves that for people – it’s a system which guarantees power supply from a predominantly solar source,”
What solar crisis?, Daily Examiner, 3 Oct 2011 A CLARENCE Valley solar power innovation promises to dramatically reduce household power costs and is offering hope to an industry sector which has had the rug pulled from under it.
In a first for Australia, Northern Rivers Renewable Energy (NRRE) has developed a system that automatically manages a home’s solar and grid power to the advantage of the home owner.
In a nutshell, the household’s entire electricity needs are stored in batteries which are, for the most part, recharged by solar power.
Now – and here’s the innovation – if enough solar energy is not produced, due to persistent rain for example, the system then recharges the batteries from grid power using a combination of off-peak and peak electricity.
NRRE owner Trent Rogers said the new system effectively “time-shifted” when a household needed to buy power.
“Naturally, people want to buy power when it’s cheapest,” he said.
Power comparison service Electricity Wizard said the standard off-peak electricity rate for NSW was 15.51 cents per kilowatt hour (inc GST) while the peak rate was 31.08 cents per kilowatt hour.
Householders would still have to pay a “service availability fee” (about $90 per quarter) to the electricity supplier of their choice to access the grid.
The system is a further development of NRRE’s national award-winning stand-alone power system which took out the Clean Energy Council of Australia award for best design and installation earlier this year…..
under the current government’s lack of incentives, rooftop solar is not economically attractive … until now.”
Prices for the new hybrid system start at about $13,000 and Mr Rogers said that, based on current and projected electricity prices, it would pay itself off in five to 10 years, depending on individual energy usage and network availability fees.
Mr Rogers said his company refused to lay down just because the government was not supportive of clean energy.
“It is vital that as a society we start being responsible for our impact on the planet and every one of my employees believes this,” he said.
Speaking about the new hybrid system, Mr Rogers said the company had been installing stand-alone systems for rural customers who could not access the grid for years but urban consumers wanted access to the grid to ensure they had power at all times.
“This achieves that for people – it’s a system which guarantees power supply from a predominantly solar source,” he said.
http://www.dailyexaminer.com.au/story/2011/09/29/what-solar-crisis-local-company-beating-solar/
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