Using solar power in Brisbane to power my home with Origin Energy

Disclaimer:  my wife works for Origin Energy.  But this material was prepared for my brother-in-law and so I thought it was of sufficient interest to post to my blog.  We’re putting this deal in (unless they find that our roof space is insufficient). This is not a special deal for employees at the time of writing. 

Essentially we are talking about the 1.5kw solar panels deal from Origin Energy.  You need 15 square metres of roof space, a north-ish facing roofing and a 10 to 30 degree angle on the roof.  If the angle isn’t there, they’ll need to build a frame to put the solar panel on the proper footing – for which there is a reasonable charge.

http://www.originenergy.com.au/2100/Solar-electricity

Unlike the deal of a year or so ago, this isn’t income or means-tested:

http://www.originenergy.com.au/2833/Solar-Credits-Scheme

With Origin Energy’s current deal (you don’t need to have Origin as your retail provider) you pay $299 up front and then 24 payments of $112.12 a month.  Total cost:  $2,990 over two years.  You have to sign over the Renewable Energy Certificates to Origin (otherwise it’ll cost you $10K). 

A 1.5kw panel will save you 18.8c per kilowatt hour if you don’t need to draw that power from the grid:

http://www.originenergy.com.au/2087/Electricity-tariffs-QLD

A 1.5kw panel will earn you 50c per kilowatt hour that you don’t use during the day (feed in tariff):

http://www.originenergy.com.au/2716/Feed-in-tariffs

So your saving per day, if you get the average hours of full sunlight per day for your area (http://www.solarchoice.net.au/blog/how-much-energy-will-my-solar-cells-produce.html):

3.85kw (for a 1kw panel)  x 1.5kw x 18.8c = $1.15 per day ($420.05 per annum) – this is your minimum save at average hours per day sunlight.

And could earn you in feed-in tariff:

3.85 (for a 1kw panel) x 1.5kw x 50c = $2.88 per day ($1,053.94) – this is your maximum saving at average hours per day sunlight.

‘Feed-in’ is whatever is fed back into the grid that is not used on your site at that time.  You need a special metering device for this to occur – that is an extra ‘reasonable’ charge  from Energex.

Savings are in the range of $420 to $1,053 per year – and that’s conservative I think.  With sunny days and no cloud you will produce quite a bit more than 3.85kw per 1kw panel per day – but this is the average allowing for cloudy days, sunshine, and dust clouds (speaking of which, I suppose you need to wash them fairly regularly to keep them going). 

Incidentally:

• A 25 year warranty
• You can only get the RECs once – you’ll have to pay full price for your second 1.5kw panel.
• Chose 1.5kw panel as it’s the sweet spot for the RECs

Image from Flickr User Powerhouse Museum. Some Rights Reserved.