Solar panels in Mount Gambier

Where the installs are going

Mount Gambier's housing is older than the state average, with a lot of solid post-war brick and stone homes on generous blocks, and the timber industry's history shows in the number of weatherboard houses. New estates on the northern and eastern edges have added solar-ready homes, and the older suburbs have been steadily adding panels as bills have risen.

Roofs and homes in Mount Gambier

The local considerations are shade and moisture. Mount Gambier is a leafy city, and mature trees close to older homes shade a surprising number of roofs; a proper shade analysis is worth insisting on. Winter is wet, which is not a problem for panels but is for inverters mounted in the open, so a sheltered spot matters. Tile roofs on the older homes need careful mounting, and the sloping streets around the volcano mean some roofs face awkwardly; a north or west array almost always works, an east one rarely does. The coast at Port MacDonnell brings salt into the picture.

The network: SA Power Networks

SA Power Networks runs the network across the whole state. It has one of the more advanced export arrangements in the country, with flexible exports that let a system export well above the old fixed limit when the network has capacity, and it has also introduced rules that let the network wind exports back on days when there is too much solar on the grid. South Australia's retail market is competitive and feed-in rates vary widely between plans, so it pays to compare once the system is in.