By Evolution Solar Sunshine Coast

There is enough sunlight that falls on the Earth’s surface every hour to meet the overall world energy demand for an entire year!

Solar power demand is growing at around 25% per year while the demand for electricity from utility companies is staying flat.

Welcome back to Friday’s Focal Facts! I hope 2012 was a great year for all and wish everyone an even better 2013. Together we can make 2013 the year of the solar revolution and get rid of carbon emissions, greenhouse gases and make a greener, cleaner living for generations to come.

Here are the highlights of the week beginning Monday 21st to Friday 25th January 2013.

1. We started the week with a reminder about cleaning your solar panels. Solar power systems have little to no maintenance however; bird droppings, dust and especially salt build up here in the Sunshine Coast can bring down the efficiency of your solar panels and cause them not to produce as well. A good clean once a year or so would help your solar system operate at its highest potential all year round. If possible, it would be a wiser choice to get a professional in to clean them for you.

2. Global Logistic Properties Limited (GLP) announced that they would be investing US$82million into rooftop solar panels in Japan. The money will be spread among 22 properties, 3.3mil square feet of roof space and produce 29.6MW of power per hour. It will become another source of income for the company as with Japan’s new feed-in tariffs implemented last year, the company will sell energy produced back to the grid at JPY40 or AU$0.43 per kilowatt hour.

3. Power prices in France and Germany have hit record low prices. With more and more people producing their own energy in off-grid solar systems, the demand for electricity from utility companies is at a record low. The unsubsidized solar growth expected this year should drive prices down even further. The increase in solar power systems has created many more job opportunities putting employment rates at an all-time high.

4. Lastly, we shared some data we have from our solar system installed in our Mooloolaba office of the Sunshine Coast. We put up some quality Chinese (Astronergy) panels, Sharp (Japanese, polycrystalline panels) and the best of the best Bosch (German monocrystalline) panels and tried to dispel some common solar power myths. Through our SolarEdge inverter, we were able to monitor the performance of each brand of solar panel online. They all operated within less than 1% of each other! This shows there is some quality coming out of China and that there is very little difference between the performance of polycrystalline panels and monocrystalline solar panels.

Well it has been a week filled with scorching hot summer days as well as pouring rain! Who knows what is next! All that I know for sure is that we will be generating our own power through it all!

Wine o’clock everyone! Have a great weekend!