Solar Panel Buyers Guide published by ATA
Rosalba and I have joined the Alternative Technology Association (ATA) a couple of months ago because we thought that this would help us decide on what alternative energy system we will incorporate into our new home.
The ATA have published a Solar Panel Buyers Guide in their October-December 2007 ReNew print publication. The really nice thing is that the ATA have now made this article available for free and in full on their website at http://www.ata.org.au/renew/renew-101-solar-panel-buyers-guide.
A few of the things that were mentioned in the article that I found interesting or helpful are:
- All solar panels currently available will produce more energy than they use over their lifetime including initial production.
- Some solar panels come with up to 25 years of manufacturer’s warranty
- Currently BP Solar, Conergy and PV Solar Energy manufacture their solar panels in Australia.
If you are currently thinking about installing solar panels on your home this Solar Panel Buyers Guide is well worth a read.
Additionally if you are interested in alternative technologies you might be interested in some other articles on the ATA website, so go have a look.
| 2.5 |
Mark and Rosalba are building a strawbale house!
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:03
Interesting. Thanks Mark. I’ll have to have a read of that. Solar energy is something I’m interested in for our home, but I really have no idea where to start.
August 4th, 2008 at 14:20
Very interesting, I shall be checking that out. I think its criminal that more solar energy isn’t used in Australia of all places. If you can have a totally solar powered house in the UK surely you can have one here?
The cost is the main problem though. in the Uk the natioanl grid operates a buy back policy, I haven’t come across a genuine here in Australia.
August 4th, 2008 at 14:33
@Journeyer: If you have the time, start following the ATA RSS feed. It’s not overly active, but it has already educated me quite a bit in the short time I have been following it.
@eve: Many states in Australia do have some buy back policy in place. It’s just not the most generous one. The once being discussed and hopefully implemented in the ACT seems to be the most generous (details at: http://www.ata.org.au/news/act-feed-in-tariff-legislation-passed)
Current details for
- VIC: http://www.ata.org.au/news/victorian-government-announces-a-disappointing-feed-in-tariff-scheme
- QLD: http://www.ata.org.au/news/take-action-for-an-effective-feed-in-tariff-in-qld
- SA: http://www.ata.org.au/news/sa-first-state-to-introduce-feed-in-tariff