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No More Overseas Travel? - Running out of oil? 12-Nov-2007 At 3:31:36 PM lacto

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the retailers arent interested in you actually returning power to the grid , they only want you to install "x" kw capacity for which they can claim on the rebates but when you ask about setting up an array to track the sun they claim it isnt worth it as you'll ONLY get another 25 to 35 % more output and it would be better to put in more panels as it is too expensive to track. A 5kw array is quoted at around $55,000 so if 25% more you could spend $14000 to track and be ahead . Personally i believe i can set up a tracker for a few thousand . Still playing around with figures before i commit to such an outlay but I'm going ahead with solar preheat or hot water as currently require 1200 to 1600 litres per day at 90 + degrees and solar should provide nearly all of that 70% of the time and about 50 % of the energy the rest of the time. Pay back on the hot water is of the order of 4 to 5 years where as electric is a rate of return of 2.5% p.a. at present though the capital cost is depreciable over time as well .A carbon tax will certainly make the economics of solar much better . Also where we are around 15% of power is lost in transmission to us (so I'm told) so pwer back into the grid will have minimal losses to get to another nearby user.