Hidden benefits of solar

In the maelstrom of claims and counterclaims that passes for debate over climate policy in this country, it’s easy to overlook the benefits rooftop solar can deliver, for households and the planet. Paul Barry explains.

As a person with physical disabilities caused by a neurological condition, and a parent of a son with an intellectual disability, the benefits of rooftop solar are real and tangible.

We’re an energy-intensive household. Between an outdoor pool that’s heated 10 months of the year as our son needs to swim for exercise and self-regulation, to my symptoms of temperature sensitivity, we use a lot of electricity.

Over the last 10 years we’ve also invested in home automation, as my disability makes it hard to reach switches, turn knobs, unlatch locks or operate remote controls. But it does mean all our devices are on standby at all times.

Before beginning our solar journey, our average electricity bill was at least $600 a month, and even then, our home heaters were powered by gas.

Partly due to that extraordinary cost, and partly because we still hope to live on a planet that can sustain life, we decided to invest in solar.

Our system
In 2019 we spent almost $20,000 on a PV solar system—a total of 7.68kWp and a 9.8kWh battery.

We chose MPV Solar as our installer and they proposed the following:

• 24 x 320 watt Canadian monocrystalline silicon PV modules
• 6kW SolarEdge solar photovoltaic inverter with backup
• 1 x 9.8kWh LG Chem battery
• Set-up of two existing circuits for emergency backup.

In most years, our system generates 9-10MWh of energy. That’s enough to reduce our electricity bill by $250 a month.
With a saving of $3000 per annum, our payback period was 6.7 years. We’ve just passed the six-year marker, and the system is going strong.

Tariffs make a big difference
Stumbling across the ‘time of use’ model, where you are charged at different rates depending on the time of day, and time of year, was a revelation. Mid-afternoon to early evening is the peak charging period and overnight is cheapest. As we had a battery, it was simple to avoid peak charges by ensuring our battery was full going into those time periods. This reduced our electricity charges by at least another 50%—to around $150 per month.

Smart controls
With smart control of your energy consumption, you see your usage in real time on the providers’ apps. You can’t help but think about your usage and its impact on the planet. We now try to have no more lights on than there are people awake in the house. Our home automation allows us to dim our lights, so we do that as a matter of course. The ambiance is nice, but it’s the reduced usage that makes me smile.

Our home is old (built 1927) so it’s not ideally situated or insulated. But we use heavy blinds and powered shutters to good effect when the sun is hottest. We don’t heat or cool rooms we’re not using. Simple and sensible lifestyle changes take another dollar or two a day off our bill—$30 to $60 per month.

That took our average electricity bill to below $100 per month.

Recently, I’ve discovered a service that provides me with direct access to the wholesale electricity market for a $25 per month subscription charge. This provides all the benefits of the time of use model, and more. I can manage our usage precisely, switching on and off consumption as the wholesale price changes.

Even better, the app tells me what proportion of the grid power is renewable.

I noted the announcement of the ‘Solar Sharer’ scheme (launching July 2026) with three hours of free energy during the day. I also noted the wholesale price of electricity during that period is 0 to 6c per kilowatt-hour, as there is a surplus of renewables in the grid. The cost to providers is close to nothing.

It’s still early days with wholesale pricing, but for November to February, our electricity costs were under $1 per day. 80% of our electricity was self-supplied by our PV system, which is 100% renewable energy. And 20% was from the grid—with an average of 21% renewables.

Our electricity costs have fallen from a minimum of $600 per month in 2019, to around $65 per month now. And the proportion that is renewable energy has increased from under 20% to 85%.

These savings—for our wallet and the planet—are nothing short of remarkable.

It’s a journey and I’m far from an expert. I’ve just found options that work for our household.

One thing is certainly true: we couldn’t live the life we do without our PV solar system.

Upfront costs
The costs are significant—few people have $20,000 sitting around. Even fewer have home automation that allows you to manage lighting, heating, fans, air conditioning and to open and close blinds. Many people don’t have the time, technical skills or inclination to manage this from their device.

Governments can’t facilitate all of this. But if I had a wish list for further government support it would include:

• Providing greater ongoing support for home batteries with a capacity over 15kWh. Batteries of 10kWh are too small to last overnight and require you to pull from the grid between midnight and dawn, using coal-generated power
• Compelling energy providers to make ‘time of use’ energy plans more available
• And making it easier for landlords to install solar and ensure renters see the benefits and supporting the switch from gas to electricity.

We have finally transferred our heating to electricity—when our gas heaters wore out—but haven’t yet replaced our gas hot water or cooktop. The cost isn’t trivial.

It does take effort, but households can do their part to cut carbon pollution and significantly reduce their energy bills.

Do it for your wallet. Do it for the planet. But please do it.