Welcome to our new Long Form Blog Page
Our long-form blog posts use to be on a separate WordPress site which you can still access through the drop-down menu along with our general scanning blog on Tumblr. All new posts will appear here as well as on Medium
The Future of Electric Cars in Australia The Adopters Part 1
I am currently writing a book on the future of electric cars in Australia with a couple of collaborators. I am going to explore a few issues here on this blog. The first of these is the adopter groups which I will explore one by one. I start with a bit of a polemic on some of the early adopters
Why I can’t make any economic sense out of the Victorian Government Battery Subsidy
If I buy this battery and the government pays for half of it after 15 years I have $2,985 in my pocket but I paid $4,838 so I am still well behind. If I had to borrow the money, then I am even worse off because I have been paying interest all the way along. If instead, I put the money into my house mortgage and assume an interest rate of 4.5% then the internal rate of return is 4.28%. I now have AUD$7,885.94 in my pocket (the saved interest and the original money I have paid off my loan)
Why you must consider “overclocking” the solar inverter when installing roof panels
Extra panels to “overclock” your panels are a great investment. My overall calculations for the year are that we have made a 14.72% return on our solar system. That means that the return on the extra panels is about 25% due to the reduced capital investment required, which is not too shabby. Over 10 years that is about A$3,000 on an original investment of A$1,239.
An Open Letter to Jon Faine on Electric Cars and Government Policy in Australia
Following the Labor Party announcements on electric cars, I was on the open line talkback with Jon Faine at 774 Melbourne Radio this morning talking about electric cars. I suggested incentives for electric car adoption as long as it was paired to new solar rooftop panels, and that Australia should be manufacturing electric car batteries. Jon and I disagreed on a few things. There is little time for nuance on talkback so I thought I would write this letter to put more detail around my expressed views.