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10/06/2026

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09/06/2026

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Powering SE Queensland with Solar & Electrical Excellence
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Powering SE Queensland with Solar & Electrical Excellence
From Tweed Heads to Gympie — East West Solar and Electrical delivers professional solar installation, battery storage, and electrical services with over 11 years of local experience.

26/05/2026

Battery Boom Delivers Power Bill Drop For 2026/27 WOOHOO !!

by Kim Wainwright

The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has released its final Default Market Offer (DMO) determination for 2026–27, with most households across NSW, South East Queensland and South Australia set to see lower benchmark electricity prices from July.

The DMO acts as a regulated “safety net” price for customers on standing offers in those states. It also serves as the reference price retailers use when advertising market offers.

While rising network charges were expected to place upward pressure on bills, falling wholesale electricity costs — helped by increased wind and battery generation — appear to have outweighed them in most regions this year.

Flat-rate residential DMO prices are set to fall between 3.4% and 7.2% across NSW and South East Queensland, while South Australia is the only region facing a small increase of 1.4%.

Small business customers generally fare better, with benchmark prices falling between 6.8% and 11.3%.

It comes after Victoria’s Essential Services Commission cut the cap on standard electricity offers, with bills set to drop by roughly 5% for homes on the Victorian Default Offer.

Again the savings are bigger for small businesses, at around 6% on average.

Why Are Prices Falling Despite Higher Network Costs?

The fall in wholesale electricity costs comes despite higher network charges across much of the National Electricity Market. Network costs still account for roughly 39% to 54% of typical DMO costs.

But wholesale electricity costs have moved the other way.

According to the AER, wholesale costs fell by between 2% and 14% for the coming financial year, driven by:

more wind and battery generation entering the system
less reliance on expensive gas and hydro generation during evening peaks

lower electricity futures prices
reduced spot market volatility
Environmental scheme costs also fell sharply, while retailer operating costs eased compared to previous years.

In other words, the cost of producing electricity dropped enough to offset rising grid costs — at least for now.

That said, the AER noted South Australia remained more exposed to network cost increases, contributing to the state’s small residential price rise.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen on Tuesday highlighted the growth of home batteries as key to the DMO drop, in the wake of the federal battery rebate:

“We’re seeing batteries working to what we call flatten the peak. So the biggest pressure on prices is in the night time when coal and gas are called upon more… [saving] the renewables from the middle of the day for the night, that is really putting very significant down pressure on prices,” Bowen said.

Solar Sharer Offer Included In Final DMO
The final determination also cements plans for the Solar Sharer Offer (SSO), which gives households access to three hours of free daytime electricity under regulated conditions.

Retailers with more than 1,000 customers will now need to offer eligible customers a tariff that includes three hours of free electricity in the middle of the day:

11am–2pm in NSW and South East Queensland
12pm–3pm in South Australia.
The offer includes a daily free usage cap of 24 kWh, with normal time-of-use rates applying outside those periods.

The idea is straightforward: encourage households to shift electricity use into the middle of the day when rooftop solar generation is abundant and wholesale prices are often extremely low — or even negative.

It’s another sign the market operator and regulators increasingly want consumers to help absorb excess daytime solar generation rather than simply curtail it.

The DMO Is Still Not The Cheapest Deal
The AER continues to stress the DMO is not intended to be a competitive market offer. Only around 8% of households remain on standing offers, with most customers already on discounted market plans.

Still, the DMO matters because it influences the reference prices retailers use in advertising, and because it provides a benchmark against which other offers are measured.

This year’s determination also introduces tariff caps for the first time, limiting not just annual bills but also maximum daily supply charges and usage rates. The change should make retailer pricing easier to compare line-by-line, particularly for households trying to navigate an increasingly complex mix of flat-rate, time-of-use and solar-style offers such as the Solar Sharer Offer.

AER’s final DMO 2026–27 decision shows most power bills will drop thanks to the growth of renewable energy and home batteries.

09/05/2026

WARNING! DANGER! Battery Labels Are Shockingly Bad

April 30, 2026 by Anthony Bennett

Apparently a recent raft of audits showed 98% of battery installations were defective. Does that mean the entire solar installation industry is incompetent? No, but the people writing the rules…?

Labelling The Problem

The vast bulk of rule breaches aren’t serious safety concerns – there’s no spate of fires or rash of electrocutions to fuel a conservative media beatup or festival of (f) right-wing outrage.

Most are just technical defects involving labels. The wrong sticker with the wrong jargon in the wrong place is all it amounts to.

The thing is though, someone has to burn time and petrol to go back and label a system that’s quite functional, but doesn’t meet a pedant’s checklist.
Semantics Don’t Help In A Fire

Standards committees need to step back. If 100% of battery installations aren’t compliant, then basically it’s because the rules are made & interpreted by smart arse grammar Nastis.

Arguing the semantics of switch or isolator, defining specific words to describe an electrical supply – this might be fun for electricians trying to one up each other, but it’s all bu****it when the house is on fire or there’s a flood coming. Jargon does not make things safer.

I’ve supported customers on the phone and struggled with how little prior knowledge they have. They might sail through a pub quiz night, reeling off the names of all the world’s oceans, but confronted with a switchboard, they’re all at sea.

This image below was sent to me by a customer simply trying to reset her system. She was befuddled about switching off the AC supply, so I made notes on her photo and sent it back.
solar inverter shutdown procedure

Irrelevant jargon crossed out with red to focus attention on the parts that matter.

What really opened my eyes was this; despite having an expert coach on the phone, despite perfectly compliant labelling, you can’t flip, flick or fo**le a switch if you’re blissfully ignorant of what the boxes on the wall are even there for. When you don’t even realise the shiny glass front of a Tesla gateway is in fact a switchboard door; well you don’t know what you don’t know.

Once I sent the image below, with fundamental components identified, the penny dropped, and the statutory warning stickers began to make a little sense to the customer who was otherwise embarrassed she had no idea.
labelled components of a solar power system

Labels need to be basic.

You might complain about people who flunked science class, or don’t care how the world works, but consider this – the Tesla Powerwall has a shiny glass facade, and the same design language carries over to the gateway.

To fanbois it’s uber slick minimalism, to others it’s featureless appliance white, but the thing is, a fridge always has a handle and I’ve never found one that’s not intuitive to open.

A fridge could also kill you – it could topple over, you could suffocate inside it, chewing on the high voltage cable might cause burns or electrocution, the R600 refrigerant could leak out and burst into flames; but I’ve never seen a fridge with engraved yellow warning labels, exclamation marks and lightning bolts.

The epiphany I had is one we could all benefit from – the warning stickers are no help. In fact they’re counterproductive.

When equipment is plastered with fear and danger warnings, the perceived risk of breaking it prevents people from learning.
The System Is Failing Electricians

Solar Accreditation Australia has released new guidance on compliant labelling. But electricians are already well trained – they have to be, because they’re expected to test and certify the work they do as safe with a document admissible as court evidence.

To get your SAA-approved solar endorsement, there are 4 nationally accredited units of study. Put another way, that’s a week long course, plus required homework, or about 80 odd hours of training.

And to install batteries you need an additional 3 units. In my experience, that’s another week of face-to-face academic courses, testing, and practical demonstrations to deliver another 80 hours of “rigorous training and assessment by qualified teachers resulting in a national qualification”.

So the person signing off on your battery hybrid solar installation has at minimum done a 4 year apprenticeship and another fortnight of technical study, 160 hours plus homework.

Once they’ve been on the tools for 12 months, they’re required to earn 100 points per year in Continuous Personal Development courses, which invariably involve sitting through several live or recorded presentations and then passing quizzes.

So if people are required to undertake that level of training, and 98% still fail to produce compliant work, it’s seriously time we started looking at the rules. The system is failing those expected to deliver it.

Fun Fact: During the dark days of the white Australia policy, potential immigrants were screened by a dictation test. People had to prove their fluency, so if the vetting officer liked you, the test was in English. However the rules allowed any European language, so if your skin was a little brown you could be tested in Bulgarian.

The system was designed to fail you.

We Do Need A Document Holder

Used house dealers are lucky to give you the right set of keys, let alone instructions for a pool pump or the WiFi password for solar monitoring. And we know other trades can easily render switchboards non-compliant and solar energy management useless if they don’t have enough information.

Improvements should start with the National Construction Code, mandating a decent document holder in the main switchboard. My local network authority already requires that a map of the underground main supply must be painted (not texta pen) inside the meter box door.

The solar standards require a map of the roof and solar disconnection points must be left in the meter board. And the customer must receive a handover pack containing technical specifications, warranty details, procedures, maintenance requirements, etc.

badly drawn solar site map

We hardly had to blur this one as it was unreadable anyway. At least a QR code might be legible.

Some more innovative solar companies make all this information available via QR code, like manufacturers do for inverter manuals. It’s a great way to transfer a variety of documents in rich detail, right up until the company goes broke or the server goes down.

However, the numpty who takes a paper map of their solar array (not durable, colourfast or compliant) and glues it over the mains supply drawing? They want to be tarred and feathered.
badly made solar site plan

The most prominent thing about this p**s poor excuse for a map is the pattern of the silicone used to glue it down. These Origin subcontractors can get in the bin (a comment I’m happy to make despite Origin owning SolarQuotes).
Battery Standards Must Be Free To Access

Electricians refer to AS 3000 wiring rules as the good book, but unlike all the goat herder’s guides to the galaxy they study in religious circles, ours gets updated sporadically and it’s cited in laws, not lore.

Sadly our seminary doesn’t have soaring architecture and stained glass – rather TAFE colleges sorely need funding to improve their strained capabilities (we should tax the churches and nationalise all the schools while we’re at it).

The point is, electricians must be trained, steeped, and familiarised with the jargon before they’re able to open the book and interpret the contents. If you don’t have that context, then you’re not qualified to do the work, nor offer an opinion.

It’s worth remembering that if you see a “rate my installation” post on social media, the armchair experts aren’t coughing up $300 per copy for the multiple standards applicable.
Inverters Should Supply Their Own Labels

One key question is why inverter makers aren’t supplying the labels that belong with their specific model of hardware.

Some inverters are non-compliant because a cover blocks access to the DC isolator. In fact AlphaESS have a cover screwed on, so technically they need a second isolator added beside the unit.
alphaESS inverter not compliant

As seen from behind, this AlphaESS requires a long screwdriver (green) to get the cover off and access the DC isolator. It’s not a compliant product. Credit to Solar Training Centre

Sigenergy fans point to an isolator buried behind a cover, which you need two hands to remove, but without really specific labelling it’s not obvious. Vanity stops them from removing a “knock out” in the moulding to create access, but either way, the isolator isn’t easy to see. And the shutdown procedure requires you to push a separate button, which again can’t be explained by a generic label.

GoodWe need specific labelling too, but in my opinion they have the right compromise in the design. With one finger you can flick the cover off and then it’s easy to see and operate the isolator.
GoodWe ESA inverter

GoodWe have moulded the arrow into the cover (highlighted black) so access to the isolator isn’t difficult.

The best labels I’ve seen recently are designed specifically for the GoodWe ESA. These are available for download from Ultec and they’re a great example of dedicated Australian support.
goodwe inverter shutdown label

This really shows the punters what you need to do and how to go about it.

I’ll argue that if you can’t see the handle, and operate it with one hand, it’s not accessible and not compliant.
Fronius gen24 solar inverter

As a customer, there is no “HAZARDOUS DC VOLTAGE” available from this Fronius inverter, unless you single out the black wiring and have at it with some scissors. At least the big black round k**b makes the DC isolator obvious
Numbers Are Universal

Let’s face it, not everyone is good with English, let alone electrical jargon. So without resorting to ambiguous pictograms, Egyptian hieroglyphics or the latest raft of emojis, you can instruct people on how to shut down a power system using numbers.

When I built remote-area power systems, there were sometimes a dozen or more steps in the shutdown procedure. We would apply the statutory jargon, but every system was different, so they all got a unique laminated placard.
off grid power system switchboard

In this example, the startup procedure needs extra steps when you reverse the shutdown order.

The real test was in the handover, watching the customer follow the instructions without skilled intervention.

remote area power system

give you the order, while arrows explain you need to pull firmly on a “rat trap” fuse disconnect.

Shutdown labels must have a numbered order, something your 5-year-old can follow. And to make it work, the switches, circuit breakers or handles themselves must have numbers attached to identify them.

Emergency Stop!

Follow this order to switch off:

1. Open Here >>>
2. Flip the toggle down to switch off the mains power
3. Turn the handle to switch off the solar from the roof
4. Push the red button to switch off the battery

Notice I’ve deliberately avoided the term isolate here; because despite my electrical instinct, I know we’d be better off talking to a junior primary teacher about the most obvious words to use. So have at it in the comments section please.
This Is The Bottom Line

I can’t stress this enough, because all the standards, all the labels, all the audits, all the hand wringing & finger pointing is just a pointless waste of time and resources, unless we make the labels something a completely untrained punter can comprehend.
Labelling must be simple to apply

and even simpler to understand.

https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/warning-danger-battery-labels-are-shockingly-bad/

05/05/2026

Too Much Of A Good Thing: Dynamic Solar Connections Explained

by Baran Yildiz 1 Comment

Solar panels and power lines

Solar panels installed by Limitless Energy.

When Australian households first started installing solar, there were almost no restrictions on how much energy they could export back to the grid, and they received up to 60c per kWh for exporting it. Fast forward to today, and we have millions of rooftop solar systems meeting more than 13% of the country’s electricity demand.
What Are Dynamic Connections For Solar?

Rooftop solar has brought significant financial savings to households and reduced our greenhouse gas emissions, helping Australia lead the way in consumer-driven clean energy transition.

However, it’s not without challenges, such as increased daytime energy exports that cause power to flow in reverse, raising network voltages that may curtail or trip PV systems and cause other power quality issues.

To manage this, the ‘dynamic connections’ concept was introduced and first implemented in South Australia. Also known as Dynamic Operating Envelopes (DOE) or Flexible Export Limits (FEL), they adjust the amount of solar exported in real-time, based on network conditions.
Stopping Highway Congestion

Perhaps an analogy is the ramp traffic signals, which allow only a certain number of cars to join the highway at a time when it is congested. But when there aren’t many cars or if the highway is large enough, the ramp signals won’t restrict the number of cars flowing into the highway.

Credit: Mainroads WA

So, when there is too much solar export (cars) in certain parts of the network (highway), the operators may restrict the number of solar exports from each system.

This concept can also enable a more equitable allocation of solar exports, helping more people install rooftop solar systems and export their excess energy. Imagine all your neighbours had big solar systems, and when it is your turn to buy one, network companies may deny you any exports, as the highway is already congested and no more new cars are allowed. With dynamic connections, networks can regulate solar exports and allow more households to own solar.

Dynamic connections can also help completely stop solar export traffic in the event of a serious accident on the highway (network security and contingency events). This concept is known as the Emergency Backstop Mechanism.
Dynamic Connections Across Different States

So, what does it all mean for you as an existing or new owner of a solar?

As an example, if you live in South Australia and want a new solar system or to upgrade your existing system, the network (SAPN) will give you two options:

You don’t participate in the dynamic connections program, and have a static export limit of 1.5 kW (so you can’t export more than this limit)
You participate in the dynamic connections program and can export up to 10 kW of energy per phase, dynamically managed by the network company depending on the network conditions

According to data on new installations in South Australia, around 80% of households have opted in to the dynamic connections program since July 2023. If you bought a system before July 2023 or have another existing export control device, then dynamic connection rules won’t apply to you until you need to upgrade or buy a new system.
South Australia

From July 2023, all new systems or upgrades require dynamic connections capability.
Participating sites get up to 10 kW export limit per phase.
Sites can opt out and have a 1.5 kW fixed static export limit.
80% of new installations have chosen dynamic connections up to date.

NSW & ACT

NSW is planning to implement a similar strategy to South Australia, with the rollout expected this year.
Participating sites are expected to get up to 10 kW of export, and non-participating sites get a static fixed export limit of 1.5 kW.

Victoria

From March 2024, Solar Victoria required all new systems claiming the Victorian rebate to have dynamic capability
New systems not claiming the Victorian rebate still need to have the Victorian backstop mechanism (VBM)
Most sites with dynamic connections are still configured for a 5 kW static export limit per phase, but likely to move to dynamic exports in the future

Queensland

From Feb 2023, all new sites >10 kVA are required to have a generation signalling device (GSD), but are not currently required to have dynamic connections capability.
GSD is a mechanism used for the Emergency Backstop Mechanism (EBM).
No state government or DNSP mandate on dynamic connections, households can choose static fixed export limits (1.5 kW or 5 kW) or participate in dynamic connections (up to 10 kW export).

Western Australia

As of May 1, 2026, all new and upgraded systems are required to have dynamic connections capability.
Participation is not mandatory; however, sites that don’t participate will have a smaller static export limit of 1.5 kW.

At the time of writing, I couldn’t find clear information on the implementation of dynamic connections in Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

However, in Tasmania, networks allow larger static export limits up to 10 kW. Considering the number of rooftop solar systems and the relatively low solar irradiance, dynamic connections may not be needed in Tasmania.

In the Northern Territory, there are existing static export limits such as 5 kW or 7 kW.
How Do Dynamic Connections Work?

Dynamic connections will use the Common Smart Inverter Profile-Australia (CSIP-Aus) communication protocol, an implementation of the international standard IEEE 2030.5.

This standard enables inverters to send and receive signals to and from the network servers in a standardised format. There are three options for the communication between the inverters and network servers:

Relevant agents: use a gateway device with an internet connection to communicate with network servers, and use the inverters’ Demand Response Mode (DRM) ports to control them.
Direct connection: Network servers can communicate directly with the inverter over the internet using the CSIP-Aus communication protocol.
Aggregator cloud (inverter manufacturer, retailer or energy company): Network servers communicate with the aggregator cloud servers via CSIP-Aus protocol, which then controls the inverters.

The figure below demonstrates these options (reference: South Australia Power Networks Flexible Exports Trial):

flexible exports schematic from SAPN

In some states, dynamic connections may increase installation costs if they require extra hardware or labour.
What About Dodgy Internet?

Some of you may be asking: all these options rely on internet connectivity, what happens if my internet connection is not reliable, or perhaps the site/inverter can’t be connected to the internet?

While the internet is down, the systems must revert to a default fallback option: a 1.5 kW static export limit.

If your system doesn’t have an internet connection, it will require the static export limit (remember, this applies only to new installations or upgrades).
How About Batteries?

Dynamic connections also apply to grid-connected battery systems. If you have a large enough battery, much of your excess solar generation will go to charge it, reducing exports; therefore, any static or dynamic export limit will have less impact.

27/04/2026

Liquid Air: Heralding A Breakthrough For Long Duration Energy Storage?

ByNick Nuttall,
Contributor. Nick Nuttall is a journalist and presenter for We Don’t Have Time.

A critical piece in global efforts to switch economies from fossil fuels to clean energy—long duration energy storage or LDES—may be set for a big boost in 2026.

Two large scale projects, that in this case transform air into a critically cold liquid, are set to start operations over the coming months in the United Kingdom and China.

It underlines how some long duration energy storage technologies are moving from pilots to scaled-up commercial viability.

The liquid air projects—one in China’s Gobi Desert outside Golmud in the northwestern province of Qinghai and the other at Carrington, near Manchester, England by the company Highview Power—will harness surplus solar and wind power to compress and store air at minus 196 degrees C.

On demand, the air can be rapidly decompressed—massively expanding back to a gas over 750 times in size-- to turn electricity-generating turbines that can provide green electricity to energy companies during times of high or peak demand.

Technology to compress liquid air has been around since late 19C but the environmental and geopolitical challenges of the early 21stC make its commercial debut a timely game changer says Dominic Walters, Chief of Corporate Affairs at Highview Power.

Maxime Johnson of Alfa Laval, which last July bought the French company providing heat exchangers to the Chinese Gobi Desert project, agrees: “There has always been interest in liquid air, but what perhaps was lacking was scale. That is now coming in China and the UK—everyone is watching and this could spark a big wave of investment”.


Battery energy storage has been booming recently and prices have been falling. But batteries are seen as a short term part of the energy storage jigsaw puzzle.

Mr Walters adds: “While batteries are good at short-term storage, they don’t do long duration because the harder you work them, the faster they degrade so over time they are an expensive resource. We are here, we have done the pilots, we are proven”.

There has also been concern recently at the frequent negative prices for renewables in Europe linked in part with the fact that there has been insufficient storage available to match the growth in green energy generation.

The Golmud Gobi Desert 60 MW storage project, which has been coined a “super air power bank” takes surplus, unused power from a vast solar photovoltaic farm.

The liquid air produced can deliver up to 600,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity and run fully for up to 10 hours.

Other countries are moving. South Korea’s Institute for Advanced Engineering is, in collaboration with Alfa Laval, deploying the country’s first large scale liquid air energy storage plant to help meet new climate targets.

Julia Souder, the CEO of the Long Duration Energy Storage Council, said LDES is being commercially deployed world-wide: “It is increasingly seen as essential economic infrastructure, not a niche energy technology”.

Global Renewables Summit, Co-Hosted By Bloomberg Philanthropies And The Global Renewables Alliance

Many Other Long Duration Energy Storage Systems Emerging

Liquid air is just one of the technologies being deployed. Others include using surplus or off-peak priced energy to pump water up to hydroelectric reservoirs to be released later when needed.

A Canadian company called Hydrostor has projects underway in California and Australia where surplus energy will be used to compress and store air in underground caverns.

“What’s missing isn’t technological readiness, it’s scale. The remaining challenge is capital alignment, not innovation—I believe the next five years will determine if LDES becomes core infrastructure or a missed system opportunity,” said Ms Souder.

With the right policy and financial support, costs of longer storage technologies could decline by up to 47 per cent by 2030, according to a recent report.

It also claims that scaled up deployment could represents a $4 trillion investment opportunity by 2040 that could trigger up to $540 billion in savings across global energy systems.

Government Policies Key to Success

Mark Vyvyan-Robinson, Highview Power’s Business Development Director, agrees that government policies have a key role in unlocking the potential.

The UK government’s current goal, deemed critical to support the growth of renewables into the 2030s and beyond, is to have around 20GW of short and 20 GW of long duration energy storage.

Over several years, UK government-backed pilots have also helped test Highview Power’s technology. The company had a grant in 2020 of British pounds 10 million and the then UK Infrastructure Bank (now the National Wealth Fund) took part in the successful raising of British Pounds 300 million for the firm.

Like in China, the plant near Manchester will be able to store the equivalent of 60MW of liquid air and be able to discharge it into the grid for around 6 to 8 hours.

Two further projects --each with a much bigger capacity of 3.2 GW-- are in the pipeline at Hunterston in Scotland and Killingholme, England.

The UK’s energy regulator Ofgem has announced they are eligible to receive support under the UK’s “cap and floor” scheme-- a new funding mechanism to de-risk and attract private sector backing into long duration energy storage projects.

Mr Walters said these 3.2GW plants could operate on full power for up to around 12 hours and in theory longer. “But you must weigh things up. If you don’t cycle the energy and use it, we don’t make any money. We need to sell like anyone else”.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/we-dont-have-time/2026/04/18/liquid-air-heralding-a-breakthrough-for-long-duration-energy-storage/