![\"BryonBay\"](\"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/BryonBay.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nLook carefully, you can see the Bryon Bay Lighthouse, necessary in the old days to warn ships of an approaching continent — Australia.<\/p>\n
Once Bryon Bay ran on whale oil. It was a huge whaling port. Now it increasingly runs on solar and wind.<\/p>\n
Five years ago, you had maybe a five year payback on solar. Now it’s under a year — at least here in Australia.<\/p>\n
Solar panels are plummeting in price and increasing in efficiency. The new ones \u00a0don’t need the sun. They make energy when the sky is overcast. But not at night.<\/p>\n
Tesla is the big excitement here. Not the car. But Tesla batteries. Everyone’s talking of them.<\/p>\n
With new solar panels and new Tesla batteries, people can be confident of surviving “off the grid.”<\/p>\n
Australians want to be off the grid. Australia is nuts on the environment. Australians are planting trees on their own properties to absorb carbon dioxide. They proudly tell you that. They shy from electricity companies that make electricity from coal, which is dirty. They speak of electric utilities as evil incarnate.<\/p>\n
It rains torrentially in April — especially when I’m visiting. So, the Australians also buy gas generators — to stay confidently off the grid for the few times it rains.<\/p>\n
Here’s a news story today:<\/p>\n
Another of Australia\u2019s major housing developers, the Melbourne-Based group Metricon, will offer rooftop solar and storage as an optional extra in a range of its new-build homes in Queensland, via a new partnership with local installer and Tesla battery reseller CSR Bradford.<\/p>\n
CSR Bradford \u2013 whose NSW-based company started in insulation more than 80 years ago, and has since expanded into energy efficiency and solar and storage through Bradford Solar \u2013 is an accredited Tesla Powerwall reseller, and has been watching the growth of the battery storage market closely over the past few years.<\/p>\n
For more, click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Allegedly, Australia has one million houses with solar already. That’s what I got told at tonight’s dinner party. The number seems high. I’m checking.<\/p>\n Susan and I are staying in a house that’s 100% off the grid. Yet we run lights, TVs, computers, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers and — dig this — towel warmers. That’s real spiffy. We don’t have towel warmers in our U.S. houses. We Americans are deprived.<\/p>\n According to leading energy site, RenewEconomy.com<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Recent data shows California coming through. Recently, the state briefly generated enough solar power to meet nearly half of the state\u2019s electricity needs, according to data from the largest grid operator in the state,\u00a0California ISO<\/a>.<\/p>\n Around midday on Friday, demand reached around\u00a029 Gigawatts (GW)<\/a>, while solar was providing nearly 14 GW of generation\u200a\u2014\u200asome 9 GW from utility-scale arrays and another\u00a05 GW<\/a>\u00a0or so from rooftops and parking lot canopies around the state.<\/p>\n RenewEconomy.com<\/a>\u00a0 <\/strong>lists\u00a0Companies involved in Automation & Renewables<\/b><\/p>\n Government actions and reports<\/b><\/p>\n Solar<\/b><\/p>\n Battery storage<\/b><\/p>\n Research Groups, Institutes and Universities<\/b><\/p>\n People<\/b><\/p>\n I had planned on going solar in our California house. But we didn’t get time. We will when we return.<\/p>\n Meanwhile some silly stories:<\/p>\n\n
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