Why Adelaide is the perfect place for solar panel installations

Posted on 28 October 2017

Earlier this year, the Adelaide government said it will be offering financial incentives to both home and businesses for the installation and maintenance of solar power systems on their buildings.

The government announced it will give $5,000 towards the price of the solar battery storage systems, helping contribute to the cost of the installation for this environmentally friendly energy source.

The perfect conditions for solar panels

With its Mediterranean climate, hot dry summers, skies full of sunshine and minimal rainfall, Adelaide has the perfect conditions for solar panel installations.

Clear, bright days create the perfect conditions for solar energy generation and Adelaide has plenty of these.

South Australia is known for being one of the driest states on the driest continent so it’s time residents took advantage of these conditions.

How much energy will my solar power system produce?

The biggest concern many consumers have is that their solar panels in Adelaide may not produce enough energy for them to power their home or their business. But this concern is unfounded.

Of course, the larger the installation, the greater the amount of energy that will be produced, just like a larger engine giving a car more power. But beyond the size of the system, there are also other factors to take into account. For example, how much sunlight the system receives.

This amount of sunlight received will depend on how your system is installed, such as if there are any shadows blocking the sunlight, how many hours of daylight there is, how intense the sunlight is, and how cloudy or sunny the days are. A system that receives more cloudy days than sunny days will produce one third of the energy created by days full of sunshine.

In Australia, Adelaide is seen as a solar panel hotspot because it has a lot fewer cloudy days than other cities in the country, such as Hobart. In fact, for a 4 kilowatt system in Adelaide, you can be expected to receive about 16.8 kilowatt hours a day in solar powered energy, compared to just 14 kilowatt hours in Hobart.

The incentive for installation

But is the cost of electricity generation through solar panel use worth it? Over the years, the price of solar panel systems has dropped and if you use a lot of electricity, solar panel systems can save you a significant amount of money.

How much? Consider this energy companies currently sell electricity at about 26c per kilowatt hour. This is expensive when you consider a solar panel’s energy costs about 8 – 10c per kilowatt hour.

If you were to install a system like this, you would pay it off within six years through the energy savings, and all the electricity you produce after this period would be free.

Return on investment

Solar panel systems won’t just save you money though, the installation could earn you money too. In reality, most families and employees will only use about 50 – 60% of the power generated from their solar systems.

All the energy they don’t use is sent back to the electricity grid and the energy company compensates the owner for each kWh at a price the government determines.

So with the regular rate at about 10c per kilowatt hour, you can expect to gain a 12% return on investment over a period of eight years if you were exporting 40% of your 5 kilowatt energy back to the grid.

Australia setting itself green energy targets

In the middle of this year, the Australian federal government set targets aiming for at least 33,000 gigawatt hours to be coming from renewable energy sources by 2020.

This Renewable Energy Target (RET) was unfortunately revised down from 41,000 gigawatt hours, but the amount is still significant enough to see a boost in job opportunities and investment in the sector.

As global warming becomes a bigger issue each year, more and more companies are recognising the importance of solar panels, and installing a solar power system will give you a head start in the energy production of the future.