Solar panels in Wollongong

Where the installs are going

The people putting solar on in Wollongong right now are a mix. The big growth is in the new estates around Calderwood, Tullimbar and Shell Cove, where houses go up with three-phase supply and roofs designed for panels. The steadier stream is the older brick and fibro homes of Fairy Meadow, Figtree and Warilla, where an ageing roof and a rising bill tend to arrive together.

Roofs and homes in Wollongong

Salt is the local problem. Anything within a couple of kilometres of the beach, which is most of the city, lives in a corrosive environment, so ask your installer for panels and mounting hardware rated for coastal conditions, and for stainless fasteners rather than zinc plated. Many of the older homes have terracotta tile roofs that need tile-hook mounting done carefully to avoid cracks, and some of the escarpment-side houses have enough afternoon shade that a north-facing array is the only sensible layout. On the plain, north and west arrays both work.

The network: Endeavour Energy

Endeavour Energy runs the poles and wires across the whole Illawarra. Single-phase homes are generally limited to a 5 kW export, and larger systems need a pre-approval that a good installer handles as part of the job. Three-phase homes, common in the newer estates, can go bigger. Wollongong's mild coastal climate means summer air conditioning loads are lower than in western Sydney, so a battery here is more about evening usage and the feed-in rate than about surviving heatwaves.