Kiama Sustainability Expo 2011

Lots of photos from the Kiama Sustainability Expo and Kiama Community Garden Open Day, held on Sunday. There were lots of local organisations and businesses present, as well as celebrity gardener Costa from SBS. What a top day!

Shellharbour Solar Expo A Huge Success

I spent most of Sunday helping to staff the Jamberoo FutureCare table at the Shellharbour Solar Expo, at Shellharbour Workers’ Club (who actually have 22 kW of solar panels installed themselves – see photo). The expo was organised by Jamberoo FutureCare, in conjunction with Shellharbour and Kiama Councils. There were a number of solar power … [Read more…]

Residential Solar Power: Is The Income Taxable?

There has been a bit of a storm in a teacup lately in the Australian press, claiming that all those people who “bought into the hype” and installed solar panels on their homes will now have to pay tax on the income they receive for any electricity generated. Of course it’s very easy for the … [Read more…]

Generating Electricity vs Saving Electricity

While putting together notes for my talks over the weekend, I noticed something interesting. The amount of electricity we saved each day by converting 10 halogen downlights to CFLs (4 kWh) is about equal to the amount of electricity we are generating each day (on average) since installing a 1 kW grid-connect solar power system. … [Read more…]

Welcome Super Challengers!

I spoke at the launch of the Sustainable Illawarra Super Challenge Round 2 today at the Dapto Ribbonwood Center. Sorry guys if I rambled too much :-). It was a great session, with beautiful food and lots of local families to meet. I was pleased to see a nice strong Kiama contingent! It was great … [Read more…]

We Now Have Solar Power!

OK, our solar power system actually got installed a week ago, but I wanted some photos so I had to wait until the weekend. Anyway, we now have solar power! We got a 1 kW grid-connected solar power system from Earth Utility. Once again (we previously got solar hot water from them), their service was … [Read more…]

Solar Power Information Nights – Jamberoo and Kiama

Are you interested in learning more about getting grid-connected solar power for your home? You may be able to take advantage of the $8000 means-tested Government rebate which ends 30th June 2009, or the new non-means-tested solar credit scheme starting from 1st July 2009! Jamberoo FutureCare will be hosting two information sessions, in association with … [Read more…]

Interview And Photos

We did an interview and some photos with Paul from Wollongong Council for Sustainable Illawarra today. Paul is going around and gathering stories from about 25 different households, putting together some case studies and other materials for the Sustainable Illawarra project. Maybe we’ll end up on their web site, or possibly in a booklet or … [Read more…]

Solar Power On It’s Way!

We received an email last night from Earth Utility confirming our order for a 1 kW solar power system. They also phoned today to make sure we were kept informed. I’m really happy with their service so far. WARNING: Earth Utility appears to be in trouble (updated 28-04-2010). Now it’s just a matter of waiting … [Read more…]