Page 24 - Australasian Paint & Panel May-June 2021

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Business efficiencies
PAINT&PANEL MAY / JUNE 2021
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WHAT CAN SOLAR DO FOR YOU?
IF YOU’VE BEEN SITTING ON THE FENCE ABOUT SOLAR, NOW LOOKS LIKE THE TIME TO JUMP OFF SAYS STUART GORDON FROM IQ SOLAR.
Beware of
the cheapest quotes. There arealotof companies that are trying to win commercial projects, and they underquote by accident because they don’t know the difference between a big residential project, and a commercial project.
Y THE END OF 2020, AUSTRALIA
had over 2.66 million installa- tions of solar power. Hun- dreds of thousands more will be
added in 2021.
The surge in solar installations is because people have worked out that being green can also be a solid invest- ment. In fact, most people are not put- ting it on to be environmentally con- scious, that is a secondary benefit. It just makes financial sense.
Along with all the activity in the mar- ket is a lot of misinformation, so here are a few pointers on what you can and can’t expect from solar, and some general points on what you should know.
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT
If you buy a system outright, you would expect to recuperate the invest-
ment in 3-5 years. This is often called the ‘Payback Period’.
Depending on your roof, you might be able to eliminate 30-60% of your bills.
Every kW you install will give you about 4kWh a day in production. This varies by geography through Australia, but is a quick rule of thumb.
HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN’T
• It probably won’t eliminate your bills. • It won’t take you off grid ... you’ll still be connected (and that’s a good thing).
WHEN SOLAR WORKS
• A few things make solar a good choice: • You have high power usage.
• You have a long term plan to be in the
building (even if you don’t own it, you can make solar work if you have a long term plan).
WHAT’S NEW IN SOLAR?
The price of solar has fallen considerably. In the industry we think in terms of $ / kW installed. In 2010, which was the start of the boom in solar it often cost $2000-3000 per kW , so a 10kW system was a $20,000-30,000 investment. Now it’s around $1000 per kW or less.
There are new ways of paying for so- lar that mean you don’t have to invest money upfront. The two main ways are green loans (fixed monthly payments at a low cost of money) or a Power Pur- chasing Agreement (you pay for the power that comes off the system at a greatly reduced price compared to your existing energy costs). With both of these, you’ll end up owning the system.
The logic of a payment plan is that you’ll spend less than your current bill,