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Within the next 10 years we'll see these ( www.bloomenergy.com ) come to the household market and married to solar panels with hydrogen gas production being the medium.

The era of the central power station is coming to an end. I've been following this for a couple of years now. We're already seeing some very large entities completely self-powered with Google being just one of many now.
 
A quick question: for those of you with the nice pretty graphs, was that bundled with your solar power system, an add-on module, or provided by your power company?
 
just make sure you get an inverter that has wi fi, solar company provides the software, should be all included.
 
The house we bought already has a solar system installed so sounds like the horse has already bolted.

I'll grab the system details tonight and do some searching.
 
My installer developed a little arduino wifi dongle for his inverters that connects straight to pvoutput.org.
 
Fents said:
just make sure you get an inverter that has wi fi, solar company provides the software, should be all included.
ours is bluetooth connectivity, just as good really..

This is what our Yearly production graph is looking like

Yearly Graph.JPG
 
wide eyed and legless said:
can you copy paste it? link wants me to subscribe.

FWIW, I think the powerwall is a fair bit of hype over substance, I'd need 2 or 3 of those to make me even close to no grid, and the problem you face at that point is that you cant charge them sufficiently, Im looing at the SMA controllers and a battery array so that it'll take whatever sun I can get to it and then charge the remainder / top up on off peak, again, a limiting factor is the charge time v's available time... I was looking at about 36kw/h battery array but turns out I'd need 10 hours to charge it. (at %60 depth of discharge)

It's an extremely complicated area..
 
Yob said:
can you copy paste it? link wants me to subscribe.
Try this link: https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiw5_39xc3KAhUEq6YKHZ6ZDbcQFggcMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2Fbusiness%2Ftechnology%2Fwritings-on-the-wall-for-mainsonly-power-with-tesla-powerwall%2Fnews-story%2Ff00acc5b8fab87331c07a9d231d8e378&usg=AFQjCNHjEQEBdjLUDG16MjPmwjr0wWwXKw&sig2=5zXwi8ees-2zcDiJKBjpBQ


Entrepreneur Elon Musk’s dream of households storing energy is being realised with what is claimed to be the first installation of a Tesla Powerwall battery in an Australian home.

And hundreds more installations are about to follow, says Natural Solar, the company that installed it.
Nick Pfitzner, a programmer in Kellyville Ridge, in Sydney’s northwest, and his family are understood to be the first domestic Powerwall recipients.
Mr Pfitzner said he had considered other batteries but they were not as weatherproof or were too big compared with the lithium-ion Powerwall.
“It sticks on the wall, it doesn’t take up floor space, and it’s convenient to move around,” he said.
The Powerwall is not a complete off-grid system but aims to reduce mains dependence, charging from solar panels by day and from off-peak mains power at night.
Earlier stories:
Tesla presses the button on Australian Powerwall battery sales
What a Tesla Powerwall system will cost you
Mr Pfitzner said the household’s air conditioner, washing machine and pool pump would run mainly during the day, powered by his five-kilowatt solar-panel system. Battery power would be used morning and night.
“They’ll be a little bit of adjustment too,” he said.
“We won’t be boiling a litre and a half of water for a cup of tea, but if you make small modifications you can maximise the benefit. I don’t anticipate it will wipe out grid costs overnight — I will be learning over time how best to use it.”
Mr Pfitzner said he was also switching to a power provider that offered a “feed-in” tariff for excess power at about 10c per kW hour, and engaging a company called Reposit that trades power out of storage systems.
“It will analyse your usage patterns and pull power out of your battery and sell it to the grid,” he said. “It uses a market set rate.”
Tesla is not alone in offering home power-storage batteries; older-style lead acid batteries have been available for years. Tesla also faces competition from companies such as Mercedes and Daimler.
Natural Solar managing director Chris Williams said the company was proud to be part of the first installations in Australia. They were taking place after the initial Tesla Powerwall shipment arrived in Australia this week.
Mr Williams said demand was unprecedented. “We are receiving literally thousands of inquiries each week,” he said, noting 1.5 million households were using solar energy and hundreds had signed up for the new system since its availability was announced­ last month.
Consumers could opt for a complete solution of solar panels, an inverter and battery; have the battery retrofitted to an existing solar panel system; or install the battery without solar panels, with the battery simply storing off-peak power for daytime use. The Powerwall came with a 10-year warranty.
Mr Williams said Natural Solar had scheduled installations in major states and territories starting from next week.
Reaction from energy companies has been mixed. Last year former Australian Energy Market Operator chairman Tom Parry said the disruption pointed to consumers paying more for grid connections, no matter how much mains power they used.
Others are on board. US energy­ company Green Mountain Power said it would sell and lease Powerwalls to customers wishing to feed power back to the grid. And last year Australia’s AGL announced two new batteries with storage capacities of 11.6kW/h and 19.4kW/h for solar panel systems.
AGL’s executive general manager new energy, Marc England said the company was the first major energy retailer to launch a battery in the Australian market.
 
We've had our PV system up and running for a couple of years now - 3 x 1200W SMA inverters and 3 banks of 6 panels (we're 3 phase). Distance from the supply transformer on our neighbour's property is around 300m, so voltage drop was a huge factor in the system design, and why Ergon limited us to 3.6kW total.

The installer (my brother in southern NSW) did a LOT of research into PV system design and recommended paying a bit more for the inclusion of the Tigo optimisation & monitoring service.

The optimisation allows each panel to output it's maximum, even though it's neighbour might be less than 100% output through shading, bird crap, whatever. As I understand it, without such a system, one dodgy panel's output pulls all the panels in the array down to it's level.

Just something to consider to improve efficiency. And the monitoring's great as well, so you can see if any panels are down in output, instead of just wondering why your bill's not what you expected every quarter.
 
Maheel said:
i like the look of this (but not the price)

�BlueGEN� Ceramic Fuel Cell modular gas fired electricity generator
http://www.harveynormansolar.com.au/BlueGEN.html
I went to Japan last year and took a look at the hydrogen units, (only being made for domestic markets) also looked at the Blue Gen about $10,000 dearer than the Japanese, were being manufactured in Germany but checked again recently and they have gone tits up.
I wish I knew which one was featured in one of the current affairs show, a nine kilo bottle of LPG could power a house for 5 weeks.
 
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