by Jarna Baudinette Want your home to be part of the solar revolution but don’t know where to start? MPP has called in the experts.

Mid last week, Swedish furniture giant IKEA activated a huge solar power system on the roof of a store in the US state of Ohio. The photovoltaic system covers 11,981 square metres (the equivalent roof area of around 60 large Australian homes) and is expected to produce more than 1.3 million kilowatt hours of clean electricity every year.

On the same day, global financier Deutsche Bank announced it had completed the world’s highest solar PV system, mounting 122.4 kilowatts of photovoltaic panels on top of its 50-storey headquarters in downtown Manhattan. In India a plan was hatched to power streetlights with solar energy; the US Navy continued works on a 13.8-megawatt solar power plant; and there’s even a four-tonne solar-powered spaceship in orbit, currently headed for Jupiter. Closer to home, construction began on Queensland’s first community-owned solar project, with the first of 1600 photovoltaic panels installed at the $2.7 million Fraser Coast Community Solar Farm.

It seems solar power is a hot topic at the moment, and nowhere more so than in our very own Sunshine State. The Hervey Bay farm is one of several developed by the Bligh Government as part of its Do the Bright Thing campaign, a $115 million investment in solar technologies announced within the 2010-11 state budget. The campaign follows on from the Solar Bonus Scheme launched in July 2008, which offers Queensland residents a cash incentive of 44 cents per kilowatt for feeding solar-generated electricity back into the state’s power grid.

Simply put, solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, most often using photovoltaic (PV) panels which can be mounted onto a roof. While the first commercial plants were developed relatively recently, in the 1980s, primitive solar cells date back more than 100 years before then. But while we’ve been concerned about resource consumption since the 1860s, it’s only been in the past decade or so that large numbers of Queenslanders have jumped on the solar bandwagon.

So why all the fuss now? Executive officer of the Sunshine Coast Environment Council, Wiebe ter Bals, says there are two sides to the answer. “The first is finance – we know that energy prices have increased over the past five years by 50 per cent, and the Australian Energy Market Commission is predicting a further rise of 30 to 40 per cent by 2015,” he says. “We’re increasing demand by having more appliances, and the only way to future proof ourselves against the cost impact is to start generating our own electricity. The second side is the environmental concern. We know that greenhouse gases produced by humans are having an effect on our climate, and in Australia close to 50 per cent of all carbon emissions come from stationary power.”

If you’re looking to counteract these effects, solar power is the easiest way to produce your own electricity. While there is a significant initial expense, with a standard three-kilowatt system averaging $6000 or $7000, Wiebe says under the current rebate arrangement most people will earn back the cost of their investment within five to seven years.

A home solar power system will do this by reducing the overall cost of your electricity bills. At current prices, Wiebe estimates generating your own electricity could reduce your bill by up to $2.27 per day, or $828 per year (a huge saving, considering the average yearly bill for a Coast household is around $2000).

Over a longer period an energy-efficient home can even begin to generate revenue by feeding excess electricity back into the power grid. A home with a three-kilowatt system should be capable of producing around 2.7 kilowatts per hour, and if there are five peak sun hours in a day it will produce around 13.5 kilowatts in total. The household may use only five kilowatts, meaning 8.5 kilowatts is fed back into the grid, and at 44 cents per kilowatt the system will be earning around $3.75 per day and up to $1365 per year. Hence, the system soon pays for itself, and after that the money becomes a profit on your investment.

The issue of climate change has been dominating global media over the past few years, resulting in a surge in the popularity of home solar systems – and a corresponding surge in the number of suppliers and installers. Local sustainability expert Cameron Lawrence says many people are confused about which system to buy, having obtained a number of quotes but no practical knowledge of how to choose between them. He says there are a few key things to look for when choosing a supplier.

“The first is a good reputation,” he says, citing the long warranty times on PV panels as reason for this. “Look at the history of the company – most solar panels have a 25-year warranty, so ideally you want a supplier that’s been around for at least half that time. It’s also good to buy from a company that has offices in Australia, so if a supplier or wholesaler goes out of business there’s still someone here to honour your warranty.”

Many people are confused about which system to buy, but there are things to look for when choosing a supplier

When selecting panels, there are two main differences that can affect your system’s performance. The first is power tolerance, which is used to describe minor variations in each panel’s output. “When a panel is manufactured it is given a wattage, for example 190 watts, which is the amount of energy that panel is capable of producing per hour,” Cameron says. As a result of the construction and assembly process, this wattage can vary slightly (for example plus or minus three per cent), and Cameron says it’s important to look for panels with a high power tolerance.

“Generally speaking, good-quality panels will be zero or plus five to seven per cent. More and more panels are ending up with that now, but a lot of the lesser quality panels will still have a negative power tolerance.”

The other factor is the temperature coefficient, which at maximum power can be anywhere between 0.3 and 0.5 per cent. Panels are tested in standard conditions with a surface temperature of 25 degrees, and this percentage represents the overall energy loss for each degree the panel temperature reaches above this.

On a 35-degree day the panel temperature can be as high as 60 degrees. So while you’d expect the Sunshine Coast’s weather to make for a super high-efficiency system, Cameron says you need to choose carefully to ensure you’re not losing energy in peak times.

“There are always losses – even the best panels on the market have a temperature coefficient of 0.3 per cent – but on our hot days it can be the difference that makes a difference, in terms of your overall energy production.”

Before investing in a solar power system you also need to consider your home’s overall energy consumption, as cheaper electricity won’t do you much good if you’re wasting power at every turn. Cameron and Wiebe both stress that installing a system should be part of a larger effort to reduce your energy use, rather than serving as a bandaid solution.

“Everyone’s home is different, and for some people solar power might not be the best investment,” Wiebe says. “If you have an inefficient electric hot water system that’s accounting for 30 to 40 per cent of your energy usage, you might be better off to invest in a good solar hot water system first, which will use much less energy and therefore reduce the size and cost of a solar power system down the track.”

The good news is there’s incentive to follow his advice. Further money is up for grabs through the Queensland Government’s Solar Hot Water Rebate, which offers up to $1000 cash back on eligible solar hot water system installations – another reason to add your home to the growing list of projects going solar, here in the Sunshine State and beyond. And if you manage to recruit enough of your neighbours, your street might end up bigger and brighter than IKEA.

GETTING HELP

As part of an effort to promote sustainable energy in the region, the Sunshine Coast Environment Council is launching a new community-driven project with the target of reducing energy consumption across the Coast by 15 per cent by 2015. The Energy Evolution involves a two-tiered assessment process which measures your home’s energy usage and tailors a strategy to help you reduce it.

“We field a lot of calls from people who are confused about how to improve their home’s energy efficiency: ‘what do I need to do, which suppliers can I trust, how much will it cost?’, and so on,” says SCEC executive officer Wiebe ter Bals. “It’s really hard to give people a specific answer because every home has different energy usage. So we’ve developed the Energy Evolution – it takes the guesswork out by providing independent information and advice specific to your situation.”

For $79 an assessor will visit your home and compile a report outlining where you can reduce energy consumption. He or she will then provide a list of the five most efficient and cost-effective products to help you do this. These might be LED light bulbs, a new pool pump or a full solar power system. Wiebe says the assessor will also be able to answer any questions you may have, allowing you to make an informed decision on what to invest in. The Energy Evolution will then provide details of suppliers or products that suit your needs, to be used as a starting point if you choose to go ahead with a purchase.

Wiebe says many people are unaware of how easy it is to waste energy, with the example of a client whose seemingly innocent second fridge was costing him more than $200 per year. “The aim of the project is to help people understand and take control of their own energy use,” Wiebe says. “The average yearly household bill is $2000, meaning that Sunshine Coast residents pay $230 million in electricity bills every year. If we can reduce that by 15 per cent it means there’s $34 million per year that can be put back into the local economy.”