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Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity

lenergy.com.au

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Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity

#331

Post by marcosdumay »

Reason077 wrote: post #328
marcosdumay wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently, Australia has ~3x times rollout of solar than china, what is mostly caused by a much higher per capita consumption in Australia, both countries having basically the same share of electricity generated from renewables. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/solar-electricity-per-cap...

China is adding 10 Australias worth of new solar generation every single year (315 GW of new solar installed just in 2025 alone). Half of all the entire world’s solar is deployed in China.

Chona also has about 50 times more people, what makes the per-capita numbers work like what is in my comment.

Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity

#333

Post by CalRobert »

grey-area wrote: post #329
CalRobert wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, but energy that would have heated the roof goes towards powering the aircon (which likely is on the roof itself), which then emits the same amount of heat, no? Say a roof is absorbing 10000 watts. You install solar panels that absorb 2000 watts, used to power an airco. You now have your roof absorbing 8000 watts (released as heat) and ann airco absorbing (using) 2000 watts (also released as heat). Am I wrong?…

No the solar panels do not absorb only infrared or even mostly infrared.

OK, but I don't see how that addresses what I was getting at?

As a thought experiment, imagine you attach a heater to the solar panels (maybe it's a sunny day in winter). Do you get free energy for heat?

Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity

#334

Post by murderfs »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #272
chicken-stew wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, capped at 24 kWh a day? Our household consumed 8 kWh per day over the past week (gas cooking, no airco). So with a home battery that sinks 10 kWh during those 3 hours you have minimal energy costs?

Quite simply put this is what they ask you to do. To the point that the Australian government will heavily subsidise (30%) home battery installation. Remember Australia has over 10x the rollout of solar than china (per capita of course). It’s not hard to achieve this for any competent government. Bluntly China’s government is corrupt and inefficient (usa is even further behind china since their current government is…

You're right, China should stop selling solar panels to Australia and deploy them internally.

Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity

#335

Post by Reason077 »

marcosdumay wrote: post #331
Reason077 wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China is adding 10 Australias worth of new solar generation every single year (315 GW of new solar installed just in 2025 alone). Half of all the entire world’s solar is deployed in China.

Chona also has about 50 times more people, what makes the per-capita numbers work like what is in my comment.

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Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity

#336

Post by throwthrow7766 »

thedays wrote: post #131

This article is misleading as it implies that Australian energy retailers must provide every household with 3 hours of free electricity. This is not the case. From 1 July 2026, Australian energy retailers with more than 1,000 customers must offer at least one energy plan which includes 3 hours of free electricity, capped at 24kWh per day, to residential customers in 3 states - NSW, SE Queensland and South Australia.…

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Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity

#337

Post by throwthrow7766 »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #272
chicken-stew wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, capped at 24 kWh a day? Our household consumed 8 kWh per day over the past week (gas cooking, no airco). So with a home battery that sinks 10 kWh during those 3 hours you have minimal energy costs?

Quite simply put this is what they ask you to do. To the point that the Australian government will heavily subsidise (30%) home battery installation. Remember Australia has over 10x the rollout of solar than china (per capita of course). It’s not hard to achieve this for any competent government. Bluntly China’s government is corrupt and inefficient (usa is even further behind china since their current government is…

[dead]

Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity

#338

Post by moooo99 »

kaelwd wrote: post #37
AtlasBarfed wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get a battery

45% of us either rent or live in apartments.

I know, this doesn't really address the core issue, but is stuff like balcony solar legal in Australia?

Here in Germany, it is absolutely massive and an increasing number of people run their balcony solar with batteries that just feed into a regular Schuko Plug. It only allows to feed in 800W at a time, but there are workarounds for that as well

Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity

#339

Post by anakaine »

murderfs wrote: post #334
AnotherGoodName wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite simply put this is what they ask you to do. To the point that the Australian government will heavily subsidise (30%) home battery installation. Remember Australia has over 10x the rollout of solar than china (per capita of course). It’s not hard to achieve this for any competent government. Bluntly China’s government is corrupt and inefficient (usa is even further behind china since their current government is…

You're right, China should stop selling solar panels to Australia and deploy them internally.

They have been mass deploying solar and battery. They also realise that they can make profit from export markets because internal supply capacity exceeds internal demand.

Re: Australian energy retailers must offer three hours of free daytime electricity

#340

Post by thedays »

Reason077 wrote: post #327
AnotherGoodName wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite simply put this is what they ask you to do. To the point that the Australian government will heavily subsidise (30%) home battery installation. Remember Australia has over 10x the rollout of solar than china (per capita of course). It’s not hard to achieve this for any competent government. Bluntly China’s government is corrupt and inefficient (usa is even further behind china since their current government is…

> ”Remember Australia has over 10x the rollout of solar than china (per capita of course).” China is adding around 10X Australia’s total installed solar power generation every single year. Half of the entire world’s deployed solar is in China. And while Australia’s solar growth is impressive, it’s worth remembering that it’s only possible because of China. It was Chinese government policy that pushed to develop the h…

This is true - without Chinese manufacturing of solar cells and panels, solar energy would not be as cheap as it is today.

Equally true is that Chinese manufacturing of solar cells is only partly possible because of Australian solar research and development. In 1983, a research team at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), invented the PERC silicon solar cell. This design fundamentally improved solar cell efficiency to capture sunlight more effectively and reduce electronic losses. Over several decades of refinement, the UNSW team continued to set global efficiency records, pushing cell efficiency from 18% in 1984 up to 25% by the early 2000s.

Today, PERC technology is the cheapest way to generate electricity using solar cells and is utilised in over 90% of solar panels manufactured globally. https://theconversation.com/how-an-aussie-invention-could-so...

The solar research group at UNSW trained over 120 PhD students who went on to establish solar manufacturing, particularly in China.

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