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Hire&Rental
INDUSTRY NEWS
MAY 2022
Sustainability — sponsored by Blue Diamond
Considered solar 5 years ago? Here’s what’s changed and why solar could stack up for your hire business now. If you’re a savvy hire and rental business owner looking to cut costs and better your bottom line, you will no doubt have investigated solar energy. But just as you and your customers adapt to new technology, better efficiency, and higher demand, so too has solar, which has continued to change and adapt at a record pace. Options you explored five years ago may be considered relics in comparison to what’s available today. Choice Energy prepared the following update for Hire and Rental Magazine, to help you re-evaluate going solar today.
A wider market
Commercial solar energy’s popularity has brought more manufacturers to the party, offering a range of budget to premium options in both commercial and residential solutions. Like all machinery and appliances, you get what you pay for. While cheaper components are available and may knock a few hundred dollars off your panels and system, the past five years has proven where the real quality lies. A commercial solar system is designed to last 20 to 25 years, making it a long-game investment for significant savings on energy bills. Just as you invest in tools and machinery that can go the distance for your customers, solar functions similarly: invest in quality and reap the rewards for years to come. Understanding quality and receiving support also requires certified experience and expertise. According to the Sunny Side Up report from the Consumer Action Law Centre, close to 700 solar companies have gone out of business since 2011. This leaves around 650,000 Australians with no assistance or recourse if their systems fail, and no answers about output. The past decade has challenged the longevity of ‘cheap as chips’ companies, revealing firms like Choice Energy
as those invested and available when it comes to the long-term run of your solar system.
Maximising output
Like all burgeoning tech, solar panel output met challenges in the past, that are now resolved with clever and affordable options. One critical advancement is optimisers. Optimisers allow your solar system to overcome previously common issues with underperforming cells or panels. Once, a single panel in a semi-shaded spot would compromise the output of the entire system. Now, a range of Panel Level Optimisers (PLOs) reduces this block by allowing the system to disregard the feedback from that reduced panel. Solar Panel Optimisation means your new system can work harder to push up that output and potentially cut costs further. For hire businesses needing to maximise their rooftop footprint, this can be a game changer at locations challenged by neighbouring buildings or overhanging trees.
Government support
Investing in solar energy has gained support from the government for some time, but recent circumstances have made solar even more affordable. The Australian Government’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) offers two types of Technology Certificates, which act as a rebate on a solar system, giving an immediate discount. The Instant Asset Tax Write Off (IATWO) scheme is a layer added to offer further affordability to solar, not seen five years ago. This tax write-off revision gives options for businesses, including the investment in your renewable energy solution. The IATWO allows businesses to write off the full cost of a commercial solar system installed and operating by June 2023 and was raised to an unlimited amount for purchases made after October 2020.
