Summary of 2011 Public Activity

SunWiz has collated the past year’s reports that we’ve authored (or been involved in) into one location. Read on for our conference presentations, articles in Climate Spectator, SolarAustralia, SolarProgress, EcoGeneration, and Renewable Energy world.

Highlights of 2011 for SunWiz

Being honoured with AuSES’ 2011 Industry Contribution Award for Support Advocacy and Leadership (shared with Nigel Morris)

SunWiz-designed Metricon stadium winning awards at ATRAA, EcoGen, and NECA

Presenting at the NSW Solar and Renewable Energy Summit II (link to speech and presentation)

Being involved in setting the STP target for ORER (with Green Energy Trading)

(Read on for presentations, documents, and articles)

Conference Presentations (many of which are also on SunWiz’s website)

Clean Energy Week / ATRAA 2011: Solar Economics and Metricon Stadium

EcoGen 2011: Metricon Stadium

All Energy 2011 AuSES Sideshow: New Market New Opportunity

AuSES National Conference: Big Sun – Big Challenges

Climate Spectator (with Giles Parkinson)

6/5/11 Multiplying Solar’s Problems

16/5/11 Robbing Solar to Pay Power Retailers

17/5/11 A solar Policy of ill repute

13/7/11 Australian Solar’s Race to the Edge

14/12/11 It’s time for a smarter grid

16/12/11 2011: A solar FairyTale

Solar Australia Magazine

27/4/11: How performance-based PV RECs could transform the solar industry

1/8/11: Changing Solar Economics

1/1/11: Solar’s new power: PV in 2010 and beyond (with APVA)

30/11/11: Getting PV Forecasts Right (with Nigel Morris)

1/11/11: Insights from Pioneers of Large Solar (with contributors)

(many of which are also on SunWiz’s website, with images)

Solar Progress

1/7/11: Building Integrated PVs

Renewable Energy World

28/1/11: Australian Flood Waters Cause Trickle of Solar Funding to Dry Up

12/2/11: 2011: Which of these Risks is the Australian PV Industry Unprepared for?

28/3/11: Will Australian Solar’s Exponential Expansion Collapse into a White Dwarf?

29/3/11: Australian Solar Industry Installs More Small PV than Germany in 2010

12/7/11: Australian Solar’s Gigawatt Valley of Death: Worth Dying For?

23/10/11: Big Solar: Big Deal?

24/10/11: Changing Solar Economics

25/10/11: Integrating Solar PV – Solar on Every Surface

17/11/11: Australia’s 800-MW PV Market: How Long Can it Last?

(many of which are also on SunWiz’s website, with images)

Australian PV Association

Modelling of Residential and Commercial PV and Electricity Prices The APVA releases 2 more modelling reports on PV and Electricity price for the Residential Sector in Australia[.pdf 837kB] and Commercial Sector in Australia with funding support by the ASI – released 30th November 2011.

Large-Scale Price Modelling in Australia APVA Report Modelling of Large-Scale PV Systems in Australia[.pdf 734kB] is an indepth APVA report on PV costs and electricity prices for large installations with funding support by the ASI – released 28th November 2011.

APVA Submission to IPART Solar FiT reviewAPVA submission to IPART Solar FiT review[.pdf 980kB] recommends for the creation of a distributed energy services market within the NEM and net metering with a 1:1 tariff in the interim, on the basis that this more equitably reflects the market price for PV generated electricity – released 19th September 2011

APVA Response to Productivity Commission Report APVA has significant concerns with assumptions and calculations used by the Australian Productivity Commission report “Carbon Emission Policies in Key Countries” May 2011. APVA response to the report – released 15th June 2011 [.pdf 472kB]

APVA PV Status Report 2010 APVA launches the Australian PV Status Report for 2010[.pdf 741] and accompanyingsummary presentation[.pdf 1.7MB] with significant growth in jobs and installation capacity last year – released 2nd June 2011

APVA Feed-in-Tariff Solution for NSW APVA briefing paper recommends a rational basis for a FiT that is equitable and protects PV industry jobs and household investors in solar energy – 20th May 2011 [.pdf 135kB]

Transitioning to an Unsubsidised PV Market APVA calls on policy certainty and provides a briefing paper on a strategic approach to regulatory arrangements for Retailers and Network Service Providers to ensure the future growth of the Australian PV Industry.Read more[.pdf 541kB]

National Online Seminar – Helping Ensure Safe PV System Installations – Top PV experts share how you can best meet forthcoming standards, prevent house fire, wind damage and related risks, pass government inspections, avoid loss of ability to create RECs and avoid loss of accreditation. Read more and register for recorded version. [.pdf 341kB]

Clean Energy Council

Clean Energy Australia Report 2011

The Clean Energy Australia report provides a snapshot of the industry for 2011. It includes information on all renewable technologies including installation, investment and employment data.

Click here to download (PDF, 8053 KB)

Review of the Australian solar PV industry 2011 (members only – link)

The Australian solar PV industry has gone through an enormous period of growth with an estimated 380MW of capacity installed in 2010 alone. The CEC commissioned Solar Business Services and Sunwiz Consulting to examine the current status of the market in Australia and review the trends, economic impacts and the policy settings. The report also explores the outlook for the industry over the next decade.

Modification of the Solar Credits Multiplier Final Report

The Clean Energy Council engaged Intelligent Energy Systems (IES) to investigate the impact of potential changes to the solar credits scheme on the overall Small-scale Technology Certificate (STC) market over the period from 1 July 2011 to 31 December 2014.

Click here to download (PDF, 422 KB)

Value of Generation from Small Scale Residential PV Systems (members only – link)

The CEC comissioned SKM MMA to conduct this detailed analysis of ‘fair price’ for exports from residential solar PV systems. The report is focused on NSW but relevant to the discussion nationally about how ‘one for one’ schemes should work.

Interval Meter Data Tool Disclaimer

The Interval Meter Data Tool is designed to convert standard form meter data for the OpenSolar platform.

Users are responsible for meeting the requirements of the data that needs to be uploaded to the tool, which extends to but is not limited to

The completeness and accuracy of the data
Ensuring that there are no missing records
Uploading the data in one of the compatible intervals (15m, 30m or 1h).

Data uploaded to the Interval Meter Data Tool should not contain multiple datasets. In the case an excel file is uploaded, only the first sheet will be considered.

The accuracy of the output is dependent on the user’s dataset, therefore SunWiz does not guarantee the accuracy of the output.

The user must acknowledge that the output of the tool is beyond the control of SunWiz, and they must ensure that the data is accurate on their own behalf.

In the event that the program runs into an issue, the user will be issued with warnings or solutions to address or resolve the issue.

If the user requires additional support, they can avail it as a separate service from SunWiz

Warranties on performance

The Interval Meter Data tool from SunWiz attempts to convert most frequently occurring types of standard meter data file types in specific formats for the purpose of being used on the OpenSolar platform. Unless mentioned otherwise, SunWiz does not extend any guarantee of any kind, either expressed or implied, on the limited success of the Interval Meter Data Tool and the extent of it’s automation. Depending on the user’s upload, the program may require additional inputs, the training for which is not included in the purchase of this service and can be purchased separately.

Input requirements

The Interval Meter Data Tool accepts data in the 15-minute, 30-minute and 60-minute(hourly) intervals. In case the file is uploaded in an excel format (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm), only the first sheet of the file will be considered. Our tool is required to accept raw meter data, usually highlighted as ‘E’ data in its standard format; and therefore SunWiz does not guarantee that all data formats will be accepted.

For complete automation, the file must adhere to an acceptable standard format. In the case of an issue, the user will be provided with instructions by the tool on how it can be resolved. Warnings will be issued if the data is incompatible, incomplete with missing records and if multiple datasets are uploaded at once.

Summary of 2011 Activity