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PUBLISHER’S LETTER
www.siliconchip.com.au
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD
Production Manager
Greg Swain, B.Sc.(Hons.)
Technical Staff
John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.)
Peter Smith
Ross Tester
Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc, VK2ZLO
Rick Walters
Reader Services
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Advertising Enquiries
Leo Simpson
Phone (02) 9979 5644
Fax (02) 9979 6503
Regular Contributors
Brendan Akhurst
Rodney Champness, VK3UG
Julian Edgar, Dip.T.(Sec.), B.Ed
Mike Sheriff, B.Sc, VK2YFK
Philip Watson, MIREE, VK2ZPW
Bob Young
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Is our electricity
too cheap for solar
to succeed?
Our feature article on solar power in the March
2002 issue certainly stirred up a lot of interest.
We are still getting letters on the subject. Some
people have strongly disagreed with the article
while others have generally agreed while taking
issue with our stance on the Greenhouse effect.
Funnily enough, quite a few people cannot
appreciate or totally discount the concept of “payback period” for a substantial investment in solar
panels. They equate it with any other household
purchase. We don’t go along with this at all since, apart from a general warm
fuzzy feeling about “doing the right thing by the environment”, solar panels
don’t actually increase your comfort level in everyday living and they certainly
don’t have a big payback, no matter how you do the sums.
Since we are of this opinion, people then automatically assume that not
only are we against the concept of installing solar cells but we are such
“red-necks” that we don’t care about the environment. Nothing could be
further from the truth. I have written many editorials about energy wastage
over the years and I still think that we as a nation are very wasteful in our
use of energy and raw materials.
The real problem concerning solar cells is that in general, our electricity
prices are too cheap, and this applies particularly to domestic off-peak
hot-water rates. It is this cheapness of electricity which results in such long
payback periods for solar cell installations in metropolitan areas.
There is another way of looking at the relative cost of our electricity. Just
compare your quarterly bills for electricity and telephone, including your
mobile. When you get right down to it, no-one would argue that telephones
are more important to everyday comfort and welfare than electricity. Just
think of winter heating, electric blankets, hot showers in the mornings,
ease of cooking, refrigeration and all those other benefits which come as a
result of having a reliable electricity supply and which we take for granted.
Yet I’ll wager that virtually everyone who reads this editorial pays far
more for their telephone services than they do for electricity. Consider
also the enormous investment and infrastructure we have in producing
electricity, compared with that for telephones. Looked at in this way,
surely electricity is relatively very cheap while phones and mobiles are
far too expensive.
Until solar panels become a lot cheaper or electricity rates go up quite a
lot, solar panels will not be a practical investment for more homes in metropolitan areas of Australia.
Leo Simpson
ISSN 1030-2662
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