Residential PV

Victoria’s state government has introduced new rules for solar businesses and energy retailers banning on door-to-door sales of products and announcing penalties of up to $1 million for retailers that wrongfully disconnect the electricity of vulnerable Victorians.

Charles Darwin University’s Deepika Mathur, and Imran Muhammad of Massey University in New Zealand reveal surprising results from their study into why Australians are retiring solar panels before their time, and what it means for our material footprint and the environment.

India’s Aegeus Technologies has developed an autonomous, water-free cleaning bot for rooftop solar installations. The bot weighs 5 kg (with battery) and can be operated remotely through a web-based app. It uses an air wash technology to clean the panels, ensuring no need for water or any harmful chemicals.

In a huge data-crunching project designed to inform rooftop solar-export policy and regulations, UNSW technical and social researchers delve into the costs and effectiveness of inverter standards.

According to the International Energy Agency, most of the global reductions in CO2 emissions between now and 2030 would come from technologies available today. In a recent report, the agency sets what it described as a “cost-effective and economically productive” pathway resulting in an energy economy “dominated by renewables like solar and wind.”

In 2020, Anson Zhang, the CEO of Australia’s largest solar distributor, One Stop Warehouse, launched Discover Energy – entering the electricity retail space. The decision, Zhang told pv magazine Australia, confused many. Why would a company dominating solar supplies pivot to retailing. The simple answer: data.

Evidence of Australia’s energy transition and the force with which renewables are pushing fossil fuel generators out of the mix are now glaring, with a raft of new reports highlighting different records and trends testament to the seismic shift.

Poor and piecemeal implementation of net metering policies is a major roadblock for the uptake of rooftop solar system in India, according to a new report by Asian Development Bank.

The Clean Energy Regulator has adopted the whistle-blower platform Whispli to allow Australians to report any potential fraudulent or non-compliant behaviour anonymously online. The move comes just after the Regulator joined forces with the Clean Energy Council to launch a taskforce targeting dodgy installers.

South Australian concession holders can now opt to switch their payments for a brand new solar system as part of the state government’s Switch for Solar pilot program which kicked off on Monday.