Solar Panels Brisbane Case Study

How well do solar panels really work in Brisbane?

This easy to read article get right to the point and avoids any BS or sales jargon. If you are thinking about whether solar panels in Brisbane are worthwhile for your home or business, then read on! Forget the data sheets and sales pitch, let’s take a look at how solar panels really work in Brisbane.

So, based on a real installation in the Brisbane suburb of Runcorn, we look at what the expected solar production was vs. the actual output over a full year.

If you would like to check out how much money you can save on your own solar for your home or business, try our free solar calculator.

It is all very well and good looking at datasheets and estimated solar production figures, but what actually happens after the system has been installed? Does it live up to these estimates?

GI Energy have been installing solar panels in Brisbane since 2011, and this particular his system has 7kW of Q Cell Solar panels and a Fronius Symo 6kW inverter.

Here are some things to note before continuing to read: We have taken a real solar install in Brisbane and used actual data from the online monitoring set up at the home. This data is simply measuring current running through cables and is 100% accurate.

We have then compared this real-life data to a simulation for solar panels in Brisbane using software called Nearmaps. This software creates a chart showing how much energy is expected to be produced. We can then compare the solar simulation with the real results.

In a nutshell:

Solar Panels Brisbane expected energy VS Solar Panels Brisbane real-life energy.

Firstly then, let’s take a look at the actual installation specifics. Don’t forget, this is an actual solar installation in Brisbane we completed in March 2018.

We have one array:

25 x Q Cell QPlus 280w panels at 22.5° tilt and 9° orientation relative to North.

When we program this into the Nearmap solar simulation tool this is what the expected solar production should be:

The total expected solar production for the solar panel simulation for Brisbane was 9,960kWhs.

Now we can take a look at how the full year in 2019 actually performed by looking at the online monitoring:

The total amount of energy produced in 2019 was 11.64MW, which is 11,640 kWhs.

Results:

Solar Panels Brisbane Expected: 9,960kWhs

Solar Panels Brisbane Actual: 11,640kWhs

Difference: 1,680kWhs

So, the actual system installed in Brisbane produced 1,680kWhs more solar energy than expected…Yipeeee! But wait, what does this actually mean to someone looking at installing solar in Brisbane?

It means that the real-life figures are really good for installing solar panels in Brisbane. Bearing in mind, this is a solar array installed by a great install team, using really good products. If you did this test with inferior solar panels or a poor-quality installation it would most likely not produce anywhere near as much energy.

What does the difference actually mean in $$?

This system was expected to produce 9,960kWhs. If the customer here used 50% of the energy and exported the rest to their energy retailer then the solar array was expected to save the customer $2,091.60.

The system we tested produced 1,680Kwhs more than expected. The value of this will depend if you used the energy, or sold it back to the energy retailer. If you used the energy it would be worth approximately $420.00*. If you sold it back to your retailer it would only be worth $285.60**. The difference would depend on how much energy you used in the home during the day when the solar energy was peaking.

They could have used that extra $420 to buy something they actually wanted, instead of giving it to their energy company. I don’t know about you, but if I got an extra $420 every year that I didn’t expect from my solar system, I would be pretty happy!

This article is written in clear and basic terms for consumers to understand. For those who are keen to dig deeper into the specifics and look at the more technical side of testing solar panels in Brisbane, we can help with that too! Get in touch and our experienced CEC Accredited Solar Designers, electrical and electronic engineers and we will gladly spend as long as you like discussing and sending through pages and pages of data if you are interested. As mentioned, this article is designed to get right to the point and give every day consumers the information they need when trying to work out exactly how solar panels actually work in Brisbane.