Canberra trials electric and hybrid buses

Electric bus on trial in Canberra - Photo by Rohan Thomson

The 12-month trial involves leasing two all-electric buses from Carbridge and one hybrid bus from Volvo by the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) government. The results will decide which technology will replace the territory's ACTION bus service's ageing diesel fleet. The electric buses have a range of about 430 kilometres on route operations.

The ACT government has a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 40% below 1990 levels by 2020. Transport currently makes up 25% of the ACT's emissions and rolling out the buses would help with climate change mitigation. Canberra is also moving towards a target of 100% renewable energy in electricity provision by 2020, so the electric buses will gradually use more and more renewable energy to charge the batteries.

For more information see The Canberra Times - 25 August 2017

Solar Pioneer with PV, two EVs and battery storage.

David Mills powers his house and two electric vehicles largely with rooftop solar panels and stores excess output in home battery storage. It is outlined how this works here

By Giles Parkinson, June 28 2017, One Step off the Grid.

Payback vs rates of return: how to judge the value of your rooftop solar

In many cases, investing in a domestic solar PV system or in energy savings measures has become a positive financial investment. The question is: how good is the investment? For more information see the full article.

By Jo Muller,  from One Step off the Grid

Solar panels and shade

Below are two articles from Renew Economy about how to overcome the problems associated with shade on solar panels.

Solar shading and what to do about it.

When a solar panel is shaded it changes from being an electrical generator to an electrical load. The shaded panel starts drawing power from the other panels in the string and thus reduces the overall output. This article explains how this is overcome. Read more. N.B. Read comments further down regarding associate battery storage.

NSW school's 151kW solar system made in the shade.

This school had a protected evergreen tree shading its roof, so it used the system described above. Read more.

Go Big: Six reasons why you should be a rooftop solar champion

Outlined are six reasons why one might want to install more solar panels than are currently needed. Some include: economies of scale; it is costly to add more; having enough to cover short and cloudy days and one’s home maybe more electric in the future such as excluding gas and including an electric car. Read More

From One Step off the Grid by Jonathan Prendergast