Everyone in the Australian solar industry can smell the growth in commercial solar. The market has been experiencing a slow but steady rise which is much needed given the flattish residential solar market.
It seems that everyone except the Prime Minister and his anti-RET brigade thinks it’s a great idea too. Networks like it, because commercial load and solar generation profiles are beautifully matched. Customers like it because the proposition and fit is logical and the economics stack up in many cases. Even State Government departments like it because they can see its good for jobs, good for constituents and good for the environment.
It is only logical that when I was invited to speak at an event on commercial solar that I would say yes.
As it turns out, the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage are quietly beavering away for solar. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a number of people from their team over the years and they really are the solar industry’s other, quiet achievers. In this case, the Illawarra branch initiated the event, spurred on by interest from businesses and the need to answer questions on the basics. This one regional group have pulled together around 50 business owners for half a day who are ready to learn.
The market is alive it would seem, and arguably is where solar consumers were a few years ago – hungry for facts, in need of objective advice and guidance.
There will be a “PV 101″ to introduce and update everyone on the basics of solar and where we are up to, followed by a session specifically covering the issue of “financing solar”, a topic that is front and centre with business owners. I’ll be talking along-side one of the OEH’s team and focusing on the finance story, after getting a detailed run down on the state of the solar finance industry from one of the countries leading solar finance providers,the Classic Funding Group.
Of course, it stands to reason that at every possible opportunity I use my Zero electric bike and this case is no exception, albeit rather challenging. You see, ShoalHaven is a 348km round trip from Sydney which is just a bit beyond my bikes range (noting I don’t have the top of the range model). I have opted for the glorious coast road which adds some distance but importantly, its way better riding and crucially is lower speed! Yes, electric bikers love speed limits, I admit it. Lower speeds along a beautiful coast road, silently taking in the surrounding beauty is what we are all about because the ride lasts longer at lower speeds. I never thought I’d say that and must be aging.
Disappointingly, there is a huge black hole in ev charging infrastructure along the Illawarra coast (and the rest of the continent isn’t much better) according to all the maps I looked at. Fast chargers would help, but luckily with a little planning and a little time, I can certainly still do it and only need 10A outlets. On day 1 I’ll leave late afternoon and head to Bulli which I can comfortably reach at a healthy clip, where I’ll stay overnight. The Caravan Park on the beach looks great and just happens to have a bucket load of 15A outlets. I picture myself arriving around dusk, enjoying a fine pub meal and confusing the hell out of the caravan park owners with bizarre recharging requests that they are unlikely to have had before or understand. Freshly charged I will make an early morning and comfortable run to Shoalhaven where I’ll plug in again during the mornings proceedings. Around lunchtime I’ll head off and drop in on a friendly solar citizen about half way back to Sydney for another top up. Within around 3 hours, I’ll be recharged again, get through my messages and email, and have a sandwich in my belly. By late afternoon, I’ll be on my way, enjoy a dusk run through the Royal National Park and arrive just in time to speak at the ASC NSW branch meeting in town.
All up this will cost me about $5 in electricity and a little time which I’ll make good use of.
Electric touring is not what electric motorcycles are made for (yet) but this little exercise will be an awesome real world test of what’s possible. It needs you to un-think things a little. Combining it with a talk to a room full of enthusiastic potential solar owners makes for a pretty neat couple of days. Come along if you are in the neighbourhood and give me a wave as I glide past.
nb: huge thanks to Classic Funding for their support in helping to support this event.
Post expires at 2:54pm on Thursday February 11th, 2016