Renewable Energy Products
You wont be a test case for hyped-up new fangled devices. We have made most of the mistakes already, and equipment is selected from field experience for rugged design and user-friendliness, reputation, manufacturer after-sales support and long warranties. And then their is value. Not purchase price, but long-term value. Solar systems are built to last more than 25 years, and often paying a little bit more in the first instance, makes for a much cheaper system after the first few years of trouble-free energy supply.
Battery Storage
Typically, batteries are the most expensive component in a remote area of battery back-up renewable energy system. To get the most value out of your system, we need to make these batteries last as long as possible. Build quality, cycle life, and price are the main qualities we look for to achieve this goal of long-term value.
There is a lot of hype and media coverage about new battery technologies, such as Lithium-Ion, Vanadium Redox, Sodium Ion (saltwater), super capacitors and others. Prices for lithium batteries are dropping dramatically due to the increasing scale of production for their wide-spread use in the exploding market for electric vehicles. Electric vehicles - unlike buildings - need batteries that are light (in terms of kg/kWh) and capable of super fast charges and discharges. But Lithium Ferro Phosphate (LiFePo4) is also safe in high temperatures, long lasting, and capable of deep discharges.
Saltwater Solar now prefers to install Power Plus, BYD or GenZ LiFePo4 batteries in almost all our off-grid and grid-connect hybrid energy systems. Good old lead acid - especially the high-end gel cells, such as Sonnenschein's Premium Gel A600 series - remain very competitive and robust choices if these are desired. These 2 volt cells are rated to 4,700 cycles at 30 per cent depth of discharge (DOD). That is almost 13 years of daily discharges! More if they are not cycled daily, or not discharged as deeply. This has been proven in the field in the Territory, with Sonnenschein Gel battery banks lasting between 12 and 18 years.
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Solar Modules
The solar module manufacturing industry went through its disruption phase several years ago, which saw dramatic price reductions, a huge upheaval of the global industry, and the majority of manufacturing plants now located in Asian countries, such as Trina and Jinko in China, and Qcells and LG in Korea. However, solar modules are still manufactured throughout the world, such as in Australia (Tindo) and the USA (SunPower).
The most significant technical advances where in the manufacturing process, which scaled up to bring prices per watt down. The other cause for this was the maturing of the silicon production stream, and the owners of the expensive reactors reduce their profit margins in the face of increasing competition. The point being that while technical advances have been dramatic, the improvement of the actual product itself has been gradual and incremental. Solar panels today are similar to what they were in 1960, with much bigger footprint, bigger cells, less vacant space, longer warranties, and a tiny portion of the cost. Typical solar modules in 2020 are 350 watts peak power, about 1.7 square metres, and just over 20 per cent total energy conversion efficiency (insolation watts/square metre) and less than $1.00 per watt retail price - depending on the quality!
Saltwater Solar supplies Hyundai, REC and Jinko solar modules. Other brands are also available.
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Inverters
Selectronic is an Australian company that has been making electronic components in Melbourne since 1964. Their new SP Pro series is still manufactured in Melbourne and now leads the world in battery interactive inverters, exporting to Germany and Asia, the traditional producers of electronic devices. These inverters are extremely reliable, with a 10 year guarantee when installed by a Certified Integrator like Saltwater Solar, has exceptional local product support, an ever increasing array of options for integrating with new system components, unmatched system monitoring and control. Other inverters on the market don't even get close. We do not allow our friends and family to use anything else. The extra cost, compared to other battery inverters, is well worth it.