Hi from Excellence Solar

[James Mawson]

Hi, it's James here, from the company Excellence Solar. I just thought I'd introduce myself and the company I'm involved with. We are a new solar PV design and installation startup based in Melbourne, Australia, but able to service all of Victoria. We are a fairly small operation and specialise in providing households and businesses with individual attention, rather than offering the "one size fits all" packages that many of the bigger companies do.

Apart from all of that, I also enjoy guitar and science fiction films - not sure what else to say except "hello" and I'm interested in following along with the conversation here and maybe throwing in my 2 cents here and there :)

Cheers.

[Rob Beckers]

Welcome James!

We're a similar business, just about on the other side of the globe (Ontario, Canada). Thanks to Ontario's feed-in-tariff solar PV has been booming here.

-RoB-

[James Mawson]

Hi Rob, thank you! Lovely to be here.

Interesting to hear about the feed-in tarrifs over there. We have something of an opposite situation over here in Victoria - the feed-in tarrifs were not long ago slashed quite heavily. They've gone from being quite luxurious to now being well below the cost of buying from the grid.

This is not ALL bad for us, because it means that some customers will be interested in getting a bigger system as they can no longer rely on a huge feed-in tarrif to cover all their costs. And there's also at least a little certainty in knowing that it simply can't get any lower. What it does mean though is that the time of day you use most of your electricity has a big impact on how well you can do out of it. I am anticipating that a lot more workplaces are going to want to go solar in future - these guys are using most of their juice in office hours, when a Solar PV system produces most of its output - this is also when buying from the grid is at its most expensive. Up until now, the biggest uptake has been by households.

In the meantime, there's still strong demand for rooftop PV systems simply because the cost of buying from the grid is spiralling out of control over here. When I read about what consumers in North America are paying for their electricity, I'm often left scratching my head wondering how you guys can compete!

[Rob Beckers]

Yes, in comparison to much of the rest of the world electricity is still cheap here: The 'official' rate is only a few cents per kWh (we have 11.8 ct/kWh peak rates and 6.3 ct/kWh off-peak), but once taxes and other fees are added in it works out to around 15 ct/kWh for the average household as an average (marginal) rate.

Interestingly that 15 ct/kWh is just about the cost-parity rate for solar PV at this time, if you can stick a reasonably large array on the roof (7 - 10kW). Over the 25 years of the warranty of the panels the produced electricity in our area, with our solar exposure, works out to just about 15 ct/kWh. Keep in mind that electricity prices over here have basically only one way to to over time; up. That makes payback a little faster than 25 years.

Still, it's a tough sell to convince someone to pay their electricity for the next 20+ years up-front. Most Canadians and even more so the US citizens are not used to paying for anything up-front, and it is unusual for them to live in the same house for more than a few years. People here move a lot.

Nevertheless, with the end of any feed-in-tariff in sight (the need has disappeared from the political perspective, now that solar has become so much cheaper), net-metering is going to be the future. We'll have to find a way to transition. PV modules are still getting cheaper, and solar electricity continues to come down in price. Your situation should be substantially better, since you don't get the long winters with snow (no PV output), and are at a much lower latitude (higher insolation).

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

Hi James, from Perth.

If anything, we're suffering a surfeit of sun at the moment, but personally I'm about $300 in credit. I just wish they (ie govt) would get their act together and sort out some decent form of tariff. Presently, as an "early bird" I'm receiving 40 cents per kWh FIT from my rooftop, but those who came in late get less than nothing, the utility purchases each unit for just over 8 cents, then (during peak time) resells it for 44 cents. But they don't get anything in the way of FIT. Who is subsidising whom?

Anyway, welcome to the board, hope it proves to be worthwhile.

Joe