Amazing ALBO Solar Panels

G'day Chris
I used a different approach and use the panels as shade for the vehicle and therefore the alternator doesn't have to charge lots more than normal. Having repaired many many alternators, I conserve them. With not much load the brushes last far longer than having to constantly carry high rotor current and high temp. When brushes wear prematurely, the alt doesn't charge. Always happens "out back" I reckon. With my three panels, two on dual cab and one on the canopy through a DCDC to battery and that linked to caravan solar 250w "claimed", all runs my the 15 amps of the three way fridge at 13.2v in van, completely without any alternator input. 2C after 500km trip on warm/hot day.
Unfortunately, I find it doesn't charge the batteries at night time though, unlike the new panels in the quote mentioned above. Not even the "Midnite brand of regulators", will charge the batteries during the night unless connected to wind power.

Chris what suits you suits you & that is fair enough. Me I've had portable panels & I've had roof mounted panels. I find the convenience of the latter a no brainer. No unpacking them, no moving them around throughout the day, no packing them away. No interior space taken up by them. They are just there doing their job. We have dc to dc charging too. We tow a Tvan & are often able to park it in the shade with the vehicle out in the sun. All our batteries, fridge & freezer are in the vehicle & mostly power in the Tvan is only needed at night & for that we have a 10m 'umbilical' cable. We didn't plan it like this, the tow vehicle having originally been set up with a rooftop tent & portable panels, but the setup works really well for us.

I,ve got lithium in the car boot to run a 40 litre engel. 200 watts of solar on the roof. I also have a 40 amp dcdc charger. Have never had to use the dc/dc charger as the solar more than keeps up with the engel. Also helps keep heat off the roof. I can also switch it so it supplies the start battery to give it a good charge. Definitely better than relying on the dc/dc charger. Most of my mates now have solar on their rigs as it is just so convenient. Living in FNQ also sees heaps of free sunshine.

Sure was, Silly thing to do from where he stands and in light of his predecessor's claims with electric vehicles.

Had to be, but a point missed by some contributors to this debate at present :)

Is not who grate? I think it more revealing of the bloke that posted it. He has taken one small clip from a longer session and repeating the same thing many times. Where is the rest of the press conference. Was he being critical of someone else? I doubt wh would have said this as a stand alone comment.

All I see here is an A/hole using Twitter to misquote someone for right-wing political advantage and not to tell what actually telling the truth. We have seen this sort of thing done for comedy purposes. This case is just vile.

Agree PeterD
But it happens right thru all of the media doesn’t it?
And targets both sides of politics at times ,don’t be one eyed.
Many people say something that’s not quite right and then get the piss taken out of them.
And this forum is just another form of media.

Perpetuating childish tosh is one of Twitter's great attributes Shane. Suits plenty of those unable to read anything beyond 280 chars. The bloke you linked to is a classic. I'm mildly surprised his #AntiGlobalist #Australia is over governed #TheClimateAlwaysChanges didn't set off your alarm bells.

Alby
Yes, he means solar on roof of houses to charge the car battery during the night. That is what he said! However, even if a Tesla 2 powerwall which has a 13.5kwh capacity to run the home is incorporated, it would be difficult to charge an electric vehicle with one, seeing electric vehicle batteries range from around 17.5kwh to 100kwh. The powerwall may not cut the mustard, and leave the home supply wanting some from grid which is what the whole idea is trying to avoid. Those solar panels he mentioned, which charge during the night, are a distinct advantage to the remote traveller, and it is alarming such statements are made by those who should know better, no matter what the rest of the statement contains.

Alby, please post a link to the full press conference to prove your assertions, not just the clip that takes some of his speech out of context. Your reply may be true. If you can not then I view your comment to be as politically bent as the video linked above.

Seems to be a bit of chicken little here now. It was funny RMD until the wokes got hold of it. Happy Easter.

Solar ability aside, isn't telling the people something which is not true being deceptive? Trying to con people for an advantage. I just thought it would be good to have such panels. Power in the day and night. Perpetual motion achieved. Any electrical folk would be pleased.

The plan put forward was solar on the house roof, hundreds of community batteries to stabilise the grid, and reduced taxes on electric cars. Any sugestion he said the solar panels would charge your car overnight is completely false and being perpetrated by the other side of politics. Who would have thunk it?

Nice to have someone who knows the real story. Do you have a link to stick it up to the one-eyed right-wingers?

Peter you have obviously misunderstood my comment, I haven’t heard the whole press conference only what has been posted in this thread but I didn’t hear anything unreasonable or strange with what he said, it was others that have construed it to mean putting solar panels on their vehicles

At night time I park the Cruiser with solar panels on roof under the carport and leave the light on.
Dave.

Michael H9
I presume he was driving at advantages but did definitely say " the future is here now if you want it to be, solar panels on the roof charging the vehicle overnight" despite others claiming he didn't say it.

The concept Albanese was actually talking about is not new - I heard it discussed on "4c a day" radio (where else would you get such useful info beamed directly to your house and car?) many many months ago. It "simply" needs seeding and a few proof of concept trials. No doubt there will be plenty of issues to be resolved to make it workable.

What is novel/odd/jawdropping is that the notion of battery-stored, sun-provided energy - which might subsequently be used to charge vehicles overnight - is something a few politically monophthalmic forumites apparently can't conceptualise. I'd have thought that at least some probably travel with similar systems themselves.

Bazooka the issue is that battery power is not a viable answer in its current form despite some wanting you to believe it is for political gain
No doubt the technology will evolve but we are not at that stage yet

A mate installs solar gear and recently got his Tesla accreditation, he was saying that are looking to use your Tesla car as a power bank to plug into your house system .
All sounds fine but I don’t know what car you then drive in the morning after depleting it’s battery , it would work for some though

Frankly, this all reminds me of stories I heard about the transition from horse and buggy to motor car. People had a million reasons why cars were a bad idea, wouldn't work and were totally impractical. The people with that sort of mindset are all driving cars now and have a million reasons why solar and batteries won't work and are totally impractical. If Edison had that mindset he wouldn't have made his 1000 light bulbs that didn't work, keeping in mind there was no electricity network to power them anyway. History says step aside and let the people figure out how to charge your car by solar overnight.

.
Michael, it would work here on Queensland's Sunshine Coast where the sun shines every day and there is full moonlight every night. Also known as Camelot. lol

Not sure where you got your info from Alby but plenty of experts suggest you're wrong. Maybe you're talking about peak, or base load at certain times (eg night) but the concept of "suburbs" essentially sharing their own solar energy with battery banks is certainly not novel, nor is it impracticable. Given individuals/small family units can be energy self-sufficient ("off grid") it's hardly a giant leap of faith to extend the concept to larger groups. It's not just about technology though. The pricing model is critical - it can be either a driver or an impediment.

The "suburban" model MAY be relatively inefficient initially but so was most renewable energy at the start. Coal/fossil fuel was massively subsidised at its start (and continues to be, especially if total life cycle is taken into account) as it should, so that ought not be an anchor.

After all, our conservative mates in Canberra keep insisting that we need do sfa about global warming because TECHNOLOGY will provide the answers [subtext - eventually]. And it may well do over decades - just as technology will afford solutions to energy provision. That however requires foresight, policy direction and significant investment, none of which the feds have provided in abundance to date.

When power is brought online, from whom and how it's sourced (and priced) is extremely complex. The current model of centralised, large (limited number) sources will almost certainly not be the model for how our "grid" works in toto 20-30 years from now - unless of course the luddites prevail in all state and federal spheres.

Those with open minds might be interested in what Albanese and others actually said, and the context.
Full transcript of Albanese's announcement

Here's an extract of the most relevant part, which SHOULD explain his later "overnight solar charging" summary comment.

Albanese: "Today, also, we're announcing our Power to the People Plan. This is a plan for community batteries. We know that Australia has the highest take-up in the world of putting solar panels on roofs. Australians are literally voting with their own roofs when it comes to taking action, which reduces the costs of energy for families, but also is, of course, good for our environment. But we know also that a constraint is being able to afford to put a battery on individual homes. We know also that batteries will make an enormous difference in terms of dealing with the issues that the take-up of renewables have had for reliability of the grid. By having community batteries, that will be a big step to overcoming that and to improving the functionality of the grid, as well as making it affordable for people to participate and to ensure that, at the time that they're getting their energy through the solar panels, that it's stored and used when it's needed. So this is a practical plan. A practical plan for both community batteries and a practical plan for electric vehicles. It's just our first step when it comes to these strategies.

Just goes to show how taking expressions out of context can warp the whole message.

Bazooka peak loads / periods as you mentioned and ALBO alludes to is exactly why I am saying the technology is not here yet.
If the solution still relies on the coal fired stations to pick up the peak periods it means the current status has not changed, they will continue to need to run 24/7 giving their power away during the day when solar is at its prime and then do the heavy lifting during the peak loads

Until there is a viable solution that allows the coal fired stations to close we are not there yet , telling people we can run on batteries is a distortion of reality

You can't put solar on thousands of extra roofs, and build hundreds of community batteries overnight so that you can just flick a switch and turn a power station off when the new infrastructure can handle the load. The transition will take years and no doubt be plagued by many different problems. Solar is already causing problems to the point there's now a proposal to charge people for the electricity they're putting back into the grid because it's destabilizing the system. Doing nothing or waiting for a mature technology are not sensible options because solar uptake is booming and already stressing the grid. At the end of the day, a choice has to be made on whether the people advocating the change are stupid with purely political goals, or smart with a vision of what needs to happen in the future. The commentary on Albo seems to want to suggest he's stupid because he's being ridiculed for saying solar panels will charge at night, but it's actually that commentary that only has a purely political goal. Personally I'd like to hear commentary on how the transition to solar might be achieved from both sides of the political fence, not relative silence from one side and radical change on the other. I certainly don't want another NBN debacle. The NBN was a good idea ruined by political interference and ended up costing more for an inferior product relying on outdated infrastructure. Let's not fall for that one again?

Micheal I agree with you and all sides of politics are playing the game with some wanting you to believe we have a solution and the other who are happy with the status quo
Still reality is the current battery technology is not capable of resolving the issue although there is a variety of new technologies emerging that may.

We definitely don’t need another NBN style debarkle so isn’t it still better to have a path and a plan of where we are going rather than investing in a half baked system that won’t fix it ?
I am all for the change but let’s do it right and not try and fool the masses that we have a solution when clearly we do not YET

Rather than be dismissed as half baked when most people are not even aware of the plan, I think there should be discussion on why it's been proposed, not have the assumption it's just a political ploy. For instance, will the community batteries help take the stress off the grid caused by the inflow of excess solar? Is it worthwhile to use the current battery technology to at least reduce the cost of charging an electric car? Can the community batteries be easily upgraded as new battery technology emerges? What might be the damaging effects to existing power stations due to the introduction of the community batteries? Input from scientific experts rather than paid political hacks please. We need the costs, benefits and possible problems to make an informed decision. At least it is a proposed plan that can be discussed, has the other side got anything cooking on the boiler? Personally, I'm not interested in a flat "it's a stupid idea because it isn't ours" argument from the other side without a possible alternative. The response from the other side so far is the adult equivalent of saying Albo's a poo-poo head.

Beautifully summed up Michael. Of all the general interest forums across this nation I'd have thought the concept would be most easily grasped here, since that's precisely the model many of us use for our travel power.

Labor isn't offering false hope, they're simple providing an option to assist those transitioning to electric vehicles - among other things. Nowhere has it been suggested that this is a magic solution to peak/base load power, grid overload, or price gouging by suppliers (and if you think that doesn't happen then I have a bridge for sale which you'll probably want to add to your collection). The "suburban" battery model - this is a small subset of that - can actually take loads off the grid. If you want to learn how, google micro-grids / community batteries / neighbourhood power sharing / suburban solar.

ACT has had a related battery rebate system in place for a couple of years and was considering a larger suburban battery trial in a new suburb. It's not for everyone because when last I looked the battery rebate ROI was poor. Anyone interested can read about it here: ACT Battery Rebate

As Alan B said, "Just goes to show how taking expressions out of context can warp the whole message."

There is one thing we learnt in this thread and that is the members with far right win leanings. It is quite noticible that those with left wing tendencies do not sit around looking for things to belittle thos on the right but on the right just can't help themselves to look for that sort of thing and post it. I think that reflects the character of the various parts of Australian society.

At Albanese, or the naivety of the OP and obvious political bias of some commenters Shane? Context is everything, as the saying goes. Don't know about you but I've seen enough of the latter to last a thousand lifetimes, and it's rarely funny.

"At Albanese, or the naivety of the OP"

At the right-wingers who take every opportunity to belittle others and don't back off when the other side is pointed out.

Come on guys , forget the political sides , and have a laugh at the whole lot.
Someone is always taking the piss out of someone.
I’m laughing at the whole thing , and the posters on here that get excited about the politics.
It happens for all sides of politics, if you can’t see that you’re one eyed for sure.

And you weren't showing your political slip with the link above Shane? In the good old Brit/Aussie vernacular, pull the other one.

G’day Bazooka
I only put that link up after a quick google for reference to to post.
Get over it!

You didn't read it before cutting and pasting Shane? I'd offer another leg but you've exhausted your two chances already.

In case you were wondering, the last shower here was quite a while ago and I seem to recall I wasn't in it.

Must of been the one before that. Give it a rest Bazooka. Your like a broken record.
Dave.

Now that IS witty Dave.

Get over it, give it a rest ..... thread didn't track the way you hoped?

Look on the bright side. Some readers will have learned something useful even as others had a chuckle.

No doubt about that. A few more posts from you and Frank and we would all be outside looking for a tree to hug. :)
Dave.

Long odds against, but that would probably be significant progress Dave.

Thanks 100 times, Bazooka. One day the big meteor will arrive, there will be darkness and gloom for a while but the sun will rise and the dinosaurs will have gone.

The Juice Media has more equally-satirical and hard hitting videos if you're interested Frank.