Read Neil Barrett’s column in The Midland Express (week 7, 19/8/2014) on MASH+ and Powercor, hybrid systems and electricity retailers. Here’s an extract:
“One of the most common questions I’ve received from readers is “How can I get away from the electricity company altogether?”, says Neil Barrett of The Hub Foundation.
“Most callers are aware that prices have almost doubled in the past six years, not because of the carbon tax but because of over-investment in infrastructure at a time when electricity demand from the grid is actually falling.
What can you do? Putting lot of solar on your roof will help reduce your bills and your exports will cut the use of coal at Yallourn.
Then within five to 10 years, storage in one form or another will be widely available and it will be managed either by the electricity industry, if it rises to the challenge, or individual householders.”
Read Neil Barrett’s column in The Midland Express (week 6, 11/8/2014) on landlords and solar, solar uptake in Germany vs Australia, and getting solar panels on heritage homes. Here’s an extract:
“One of the biggest barriers to the growth of solar in Australia is the lack of incentives for landlords. As a result, very few rented houses have solar”, says Neil Barrett of The Hub Foundation.
“The choice by home owners to install solar panels is usually influenced by both environmental and financial factors,” says Genevieve Cantwell of Cantwell Property Castlemaine, one of the major partners in the MASH+ project.
“For landlords, an investment in solar causes the property to be more appealing to tenants and when it’s sold there’s a capital gain offset. It’s also a positive environmental action which appeals to an increasing number of landlords.”
Read Neil Barrett’s column in The Midland Express (week 5, 4/8/2014) on the environmental performance of the Trina solar panels used on the MASH+ project, the falling price of solar, and how retailers are making unfair profits from the excess solar power generated by householders. Here’s an extract:
“When most of us export excess solar power at only eight cents per kWh, it goes to our closest neighbours who have to buy it at 29 cents or so.
“Is that fair? Not on your nellie”, says Neil Barrett of The Hub Foundation.
“The main beneficiaries of course are the retailers. If you are disturbed by this and other solar issues, you can Google and join Solar Citizens which is advocating on behalf of solar owners throughout Australia.”
MASH+ has broken through the 200 mark! We now have 200+ registrations of interest from Shire residents who are interested in ‘going solar’. Interesting fact: our clients are ordering an average of 4kW (16 panels) which is in line with the national trend. Now, our job is to deliver great service in the delivery process!
At our Info Meetings in Castlemaine and Maldon on 10th and 16th July, several questions were asked about the impact of heritage overlays and the Victorian Heritage Register on solar pv development. The Shire’s Acting Manager Development Services, Daniel Borton, has advised that
“Heritage Overlays exist throughout the shire. Before installing solar, you should check whether your house has a Heritage Overlay. This can be done by contacting the Council and asking to speak to Planning department, or by checking online at www.land.vic.gov.au, and doing a search through planning maps online. If your house is in a Heritage Overlay, you will need a planning permit if the panels will be visible from a street, or from a public park. If the works are under $10,000 the cost for a permit is $102, and the permit may take up to 60 days.
If your property is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register, you must approach Heritage Victoria for a heritage permit.”
Read Neil Barrett’s column in The Midland Express (week 4, 29/7/2014) on how to work out the full contribution solar makes to your hip pocket, the latest on the RET (Renewable Energy Target) and how local businessman, Doug Hansford, and his tenants are benefiting from his investment in solar panels on Geo Clark Place office and retail complex in Castlemaine. Here’s an extract:
“Clearly, many solar owners have trouble understanding the full contribution solar makes to their hip pocket”, says Neil Barrett of The Hub Foundation.
“You see, the power bill only mentions the amount of solar power the utility buys from you when you’re not using it; it doesn’t mention the amount of solar power you use free of charge in the house instead of buying at 30 cents per kWh from the grid.”
“So when one (initially) grumpy caller, Kevin, got his bills out and told me how many panels he had on the roof, we found that the total solar contribution was almost $800 which was 10 times the value of the solar power he’d sold back to Origin.”
“You can find out how to do this calculation in the FAQ section of the Hub Foundation website.”
Geoff Lodge, the CEO of Goulburn Valley Community Energy in Shepparton, was the guest speaker at the MASH+ Info Meetings on 10 July at the Civic Centre, Castlemaine.
Geoff and his five staff are the Australian (and perhaps world) experts on solar bulk-buys: in six years they’ve put on 3,200 solar systems.
Geoff says:
“Bulk-buys work because of the trust people have in local organisers and local installers. They know that you are always going to be around to fix any problems. The MASH project has got everything it needs to be successful.”
Read the full story in the Midland Express, ‘Solar Matters’ article (the 2nd in the series) written by Neil Barrett of The Hub Foundation
Over 170 people attended four MASH+ info meetings on 10 and 16 July in Castlemaine, Campbells Creek and Maldon. Interest in the MASH+ solar panel offer was keen. Lots of questions were put to the panel, including:
How much performance will I lose if I place the panels on an east/west facing roof compared to north facing?
The answer: There is around 15% loss in performance compared to placing panels on a north facing roof. So if you just add one panel to the array for an extra $300 or so you will get about the same output as north facing panel installation.
Do solar panels still work when it is cold but sunny?
The answer: Yes, solar panels love cold sunny days as they work on light, not heat.
How quickly does the system degrade each year?
The answer: Trina panels typically degrade 1% in the first year and 0.7% each subsequent year.
What’s the cost of going off-grid with a battery powered system?
The answer: Stephen Breheny’s price for a 3Kw system that is fully ‘off-grid’ is around $22,000. For a battery powered 3KW system (so you are still connected to the grid but can store the energy from your panels), the ‘all inclusive’ price is just over $17,000. Batteries have a life of around 10 years.
Maldon residents braving the cold
Neil Barrett, Director, The Hub Foundation
Geoff Lodge, CEO of Goulborn Valley Community Energy
Great turn out in Campbells Creek
Neil Barrett of The Hub Foundation said:
“We were delighted that so many people made the effort to come out on two very chilly nights to find out about the MASH+ offer. Registrations following these events were strong and we are planning to organise further information meetings across the Shire in the coming weeks.
“It was encouraging to see, from a straw poll at the meetings, that so many people are considering ‘going solar with MASH+ in order to reduce their CO2 footprint. This is reflected in the feedback we are getting from the registration forms and shows the strong levels of environmental awareness in our community.”
Geoff Lodge, the CEO of Goulborn Valley Community Energy in Shepparton – a not-for-profit responsible for installing 3,200 solar systems – was guest speaker at the Castlemaine meetings. According to Geoff,
“Bulk-buys work because of the trust people have in local organisers and local installers. They know that you are always going to be around to fix any problems. The MASH+ project has got everything it needs to be successful.”
Read Neil Barrett’s column in The Midland Express (week 3, 22/7/2014) on the scrapping of the carbon tax, why east or west facing roofs are also good for solar panel installation, and the penetration of solar panels on rooftops in Kyneton and Woodend. Here’s an extract:
“The carbon tax has raised electricity prices by just over two cents per Kwh in two years, less than 10 per cent of the big price increases of recent years”, says Neil Barrett of The Hub Foundation.
“The tax has therefore helped to make solar more attractive compared to buying electricity produced from fossil fuels. But as a result of the scrapping of the tax, the savings, which were around $1,000 per year on a 3kW system, will now be around $900.”
“It’s just another belt around the ears for solar. In the rest of the world solar is booming, but we’re going backwards despite the obvious economic and environmental benefits.”
Read Neil Barrett’s column in The Midland Express (week 2, 16/7/2014) on the projected net economic benefit of the MASH+ project to Mt Alexander Shire, the solar panels and inverters used on MASH+ installations, and how fossil fuels get ten times more subsidies per annum than solar. Here’s an extract:
“On current trends in MASH registrations, the net economic benefit of the MASH project to the shire will be around $2.5M per year due to the employment of about 15 local people, profits earned by local companies directly involved in the project and the $400K worth of savings on electricity bills”, says Neil Barrett of The Hub Foundation. “It will also cut the shire’s CO2 emissions by about 50,000 tonnes over 20 years. Worth doing, I think.”
“Which industry do you think receives more subsidies, renewable energy or fossil fuels? Amazingly, fossil fuels still get $10 billion of subsidies annually, compared with solar’s $1 billion. The difference is partly due to the political power of the big miners who receive a huge subsidy on diesel fuel use.”
