The federal government is at the moment offering considerable rebates ($8000) for people to put in grid interactive solar systems. This consist of enough solar panels to produce 1000 watts of power which is fed directly back to the grid through an inverter and either a separate meter which records how much you produce or through your normal electricity meter which is replaced with one that can run backwards as well as forward. Thus the amount of electricity your system produces comes off your bill.
You are still dependant on the grid and if it fails for some reason your solar system shuts down automatically. This is a safety system to prevent electrical maintenance workers fixing the line from being electrocuted. You are producing less greenhouse gas though and as such are living more sustainably.
We have the best of both worlds, having just put our order in for a 1 kilowatt grid system in addition to our stand alone renewable power system. By reducing our power consumption we hope to get to the stage where we will be, in effect, not consuming any electricity produced by the coal fired power stations, and all of it generated on our own 500m2 block in suburbia. How good is that?
Update
Now it is six years later. About 3 years ago we found out how good the after sales service was from the company we bought it off when our bill went up and we found the inverter was fried. It took them two weeks to come out and check and say “yep, it’s fried!” and a further two weeks to come up with a replacement. During that time there was no solar going in so the will was somewhat more than we were expecting. Anyway…..
The system is still going, pumping electricity into the grid and making us 60c per kilowatt/hour. Unfortunately at the end of this year (2016) the high feed in tariff will end and the return to us will drop to a third or less. We are already examining our options to go as off grid as we can so that it won’t affect us much (I hope) so stay tuned for more of this story.
