Solar News - Updated 16th October 2024
Products waiting in the Clean Energy Council approval queue.
Not sure what Tesla have done wrong to upset the Clean Energy Council (lol) but whilst Sigenergy and iStore
have had their new products recently CEC approved, the much anticipated Tesla Powerwall 3 has not.
iStore large hybrid inverters now CEC approved.
iStore have just gained CEC approval for their latest hybrid inverters.
10kW, 15kW and 25kW three phase models.
All allow 250% oversizing when connecting an iStore battery.
All have 2 x MPPTs each capable of connecting 2x equal length strings in parallel per MPPT.
Very good pricing too. Not sure if it's a temporary introduction price but...
10kW 3 phase hybrid is $3,840.
Compare that to the 10kW Fronius GEN24Plus hybrid at $5,280..and iStore's battery is better than BYD.
Aiko release 470W second generation all back contact panel with highest efficiency.
The Aiko Neostar 470W 2P is 1.99sqm in size making it 23.6% efficient.
That's 1% more efficient than pretty much everything else.
It also uses an "all back contact" design that means more power in partial shade compared to a normal panel.
First shipments sold out immediately, next shipments are due mid October.
Will Western Power allow the Tesla Powerwall 3 to be installed on their network?
We will know a lot more when it finally pops out of the CEC approval queue.
In WA we have a hard and fast 5kW solar inverter limit per phase.
Tesla may only have applied for CEC approval for a 10kW single phase solar inverter and battery.
Reportedly they have said "...but it can be set to 5kW by the installer"
Which means it can also be 'unset' by the installer, customer, or not set in the first place.
Western Power have, historically, being sensibly untrusting, never allowed this, with any product.
So, we watch and wait to see whether both a 5kW and 10kW model pops out of the CEC approval queue.
The 600V string voltage rule is finally GONE !!
AS4777.1.2024 standard, late August 2024, says we can now have 1000V strings on residential installs.
Under the 600V rule that has existed until now we could get 13 or 14 panels on a string
Now with 1000V to play with it's 22-24 panels typically.
This is, however, a three phase inverter thing.
Single phase inverters, even larger 10kW models, are still restricted to 550-600V,
not by any Australian rules, but simply because that's how they are designed.
Western Australian solar installer gets convicted. Wilful fraud.
He used an expired electrical contractor's license to install 94 solar installs in WA illegally.
The STCs (subsidy) are now cancelled on all those 94 solar installations.
Does that mean the 94 customers had to pay the STC subsidy they received back?
That's thousands of dollars per installation !!
To make matters even worse, 8 of the installations used dodgy unapproved solar panels.
He was fined $15,000 which seems like a mild slap with a wet lettuce to me.
My spell checker insists that I spelt Wilful incorrectly, but we know better don't we?
Sigenergy allow 200% oversizing on their 15kW phase inverter.
I have an email from Sigenergy's Australian "Solutions Manager" saying...
"--------------------
"...you can oversize to 30kW.
...the 160% (on the brochure/datasheet) is the recommendation only, however our inverters can operate fine,
and the excess PV generation can go to the batteries.
With the AS4777.2 2024 amendment in Australia, you can go to a 1000V residential limit.
Just ensure other parameters on the datasheet are not exceeded".
"--------------------
So with 3 x MPPTs, and 22 x 470W or 23 x 440W panels per MPPT that's a bit over 10kW per MPPT.
Just got to keep the total across 3 x MPPTs at 30kW or less. Excellent
Sungrow allow 200% oversizing on their new 15kW 3 phase hybrid inverters as well !
Their design is 3 x MPPTs with parallel strings allowed on the first two MPPTs.
That's giving a lot of layout options. Good work Sungrow !
Fronius can (finally) export limit 2 or more GEN24 inverters
In WA, if you install over 5kW of solar inverter capacity then you must export limit to 1.5kW
Let's say you want 1 x 10kW Fronius GEN24 and 1 x 5kW Fronius GEN24 (they don't make a 15kW).
Up until now, it was 'no can do' from Fronius because they couldn't get their inverters to talk to each other.
You had to purchase an expensive third party product that would do the export limiting for them.
Well that's now changed with a new firmware upgrade, and they can do it 'natively' at no extra cost.
The large three phase hybrid inverter space has really got interesting all of a sudden.
Sigenergy of course, Sungrow, Goodwe, and now iStore all with big three phase hybrids.
SolarEdge finally get their battery working on 3 phase...sort of
For some years now SolarEdge have had their own battery.
It works fine with their single phase inverters but it didn't with their three phase models.
Until now, but...
If you buy a SolarEdge battery then that's all you can have on three phase.
Just one 10kWh battery (9kWh usable).
You can't get backup during a grid outage either.
Backup is one of the main reasons people get a battery.
You can only oversize the inverter by 135%.
So 13.5kW of panels on their 10kW 3ph inverter. That's not good either.
Mind you, if you can only charge 1x 10kWh battery you don't need too much panel power.
For those who have already bought the 3 phase SolarEdge and patiently waited years for a battery
this might be good news. Something is better than nothing, but in all honesty, it's not great.
If you have any solar news you would like to share, then let me know !!
Manufacturers, wholesalers, competitors, general public. I am all ears.
or email
This review was written by Andrew MacKeith, Solar4Ever service manager since 2011.
Solar4Ever is located in Morley (Perth), WA 6062
