Sounds like an ideal market for home solar and Tesla powerwalls.
Australia does actually have the highest level of home solar installation in the world. Unrelated to very low government investment in it.
Australia has the most expensive energy bills
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Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills
#12Sounds like an ideal market for home solar and Tesla powerwalls.
What I've heard from people installing solar at home is that even though you install solar and a battery, you are not allowed to disconnect from the network unless you are a rural property. can anyone confirm this?
I don't know about this one, but I'm not sure why you would. A lot of that investment gets paid back by feeding energy back into the grid - you would be throwing money away.
Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills
#13Sounds like an ideal market for home solar and Tesla powerwalls.
What I've heard from people installing solar at home is that even though you install solar and a battery, you are not allowed to disconnect from the network unless you are a rural property. can anyone confirm this?
I don't think that is the case at all. From a practical perspective many people probably choose to stay connected (particularly in the southern states) to ensure they have a reliable energy supply over winter.
Sure you could guarantee your energy and completely disconnect from the network with enough power walls and solar panels, but the capital investment would be relatively huge - so it will be a principle based decision and not based on pure economics.
Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills
#14Hmm. Price per kWh is not really a good way to compare.
My last bill in Ontario had about $10 in usage in kWh but on top of that there are mandatory 'delivery' charges which, in my case, amounted to $90.
The real rate I pay (before taxes) is essentially 10x the supposed kWh rate.
And from the news reports locally, I'm getting off very lightly.
My bills are multiples what they were in the UK (for the same usage) and based on that and the chart in the article, of the UK @ AU$0.30 vs just under AU$0.40 as the AU peak price, it seems more likely Canada (specifically Ontario) is much more expensive.
Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills
#15I moved to Newcastle, Australia from the US (Los Angeles) about two years ago. I was shocked when I received my energy bill. Australians in general are hesitant to use their AC or electric heaters, opting to just layer up when it's cold or try to use fans in the summer. Many (most?) households don't have clothes dryers, using clotheslines instead. I would like to see how much energy the average Australian household c…
> Australians in general are hesitant to use their AC or electric heaters Anecdotal, but I don't think I know a single person here who is hesitant to use heating/AC - could just be down to the people I know, but I get funny looks when I tell people just to wrap up. Something that did surprise me here is the near-complete lack of double glazing. Everywhere I've lived has been thin single-glazed windows which just let…
Im in Sydney and I've got an AC unit from the 70s or 80s in a house I recently bought. Im very hesitant to turn it on as I know it will be super inefficient. Im hoping to replace it later in the year. But until then its layer up! unless guests are coming over.
Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills
#16Sounds like an ideal market for home solar and Tesla powerwalls.
What I've heard from people installing solar at home is that even though you install solar and a battery, you are not allowed to disconnect from the network unless you are a rural property. can anyone confirm this?
I have stayed in off-grid AirBnBs in urban areas, so it is presumably legal (though there might be jurisdictional differences between States).
Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills
#17There's an old joke where in Heaven the cooks are French, the policemen are English, the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian and the bankers are Swiss - whereas in Hell the cooks are English, the policemen are German, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss and the bankers are Italian. I'm pondering an updated version where in hell the healthcare system is American, the energy market is Australian...…
I've heard the joke told as: Canada could have had English culture, French cuisine, and American industry... instead it has American culture, English cuisine, and French industry.
Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I've heard from people installing solar at home is that even though you install solar and a battery, you are not allowed to disconnect from the network unless you are a rural property. can anyone confirm this?
I don't know about this one, but I'm not sure why you would. A lot of that investment gets paid back by feeding energy back into the grid - you would be throwing money away.
Because network costs are extremely high, and ideological machinations render these (and feed-ins) subject to ongoing uncertainty.
Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills
#19Sounds like an ideal market for home solar and Tesla powerwalls.
Australia does actually have the highest level of home solar installation in the world. Unrelated to very low government investment in it.
What about the massive massive rebates that were available a few years back to drive uptake? Not direct govt investment, but with a similar effect - people got some money back from the govt when they installed solar, then the govt mandated a high feed-in tariff for some years (has since dropped/been abolished)
Re: Australia has the most expensive energy bills
#20> And basically, they stuffed that up for consumers by deciding to let the networks earn a guaranteed rate of return, based on their costs. That is, the more they spent, the more they earned. This is an ignorant criticism. Every way of structuring utility markets has one problem or the other. If you deregulate the market, you end up with limited competition because of high barriers to entry. If you set rates to guara…
You can have a more complex structure that mixes different incentives. EX: Cost + with reductions in profit based on expected net costs.
The problem really comes down to competent regulators, but sadly that's often a major hurdle.