Coober Pedy is well-known for two things; opals and sunshine. It's been blessed with lots of both, and while their opals have become a huge industry, the sunshine was less help than hindrance...until now.

The Town Council decided that it was time to start using energy from the sun to power their airport, and called Solar Shop in to help.

Being 850km from the nearest major city, the airport is a key building for Coober Pedy. The remoteness of the town and the importance of the airport make it essential that they have power at all times.

However, it's not an easy building to fit. For a start, the roof is curved - panels cannot be laid flat and will all be at different angles to the sun. Then there's Coober Pedy's weather; intense sun, high temperatures and very dry.

As it turned out, the ideal panels were the new CIS thin-films by Solar Frontier.

“The area around Coober Pedy is hot, dry and dusty. In conditions like these, CIS thin-film panels are the perfect solution for dependable and economical solar energy,” said Theo Strecker, Solar Shop Project Engineer.

The panels have been trialled on Solar Shop Australia headquarters for over six months, and in that time have consistently performed above the manufacturer's specifications. It's likely that this new technology will lead the way for both its superior efficiency and good looks.

The 6kW system is going to provide the community with reliable power for years to come.

If you have any queries about the right kind of solar panel for you, how to get your hands on some Solar Frontier panels or commercial installations of solar panels, give Solar Shop a call on 133 765 or book your free consultation now.

Founder Adrian Ferraretto keeping his hand in

Solar Shop Founder Adrian Ferraretto keeping his hand in helping us to enable the web feed on our system on the Head office in Adelaide (6kW Solar Frontier CIGS + x2 SMA 4000 inverters) to show energy generation from the installation.

Chris and Sue Wirrell - Happy with their reduced power bill!

By Chris and Sue Wirrell, Booragoon, Western Australia

After deliberating for almost 12 months, in March this year we finally decided to use the Solar Shop to install a 1.5 kW solar system for us, before our $8000 government rebate expired. With less than 1 month left for us to claim our rebate, the Solar Shop was able to have our system fully installed and operating (they even organised to have our power meter upgraded by Western Power).

After making a couple of small changes in our house PLUS having the solar power sytem installed, we have been pleasantly surprised to receive our first power bill. Even taking into consideration that W.A. still had a low buy back pricing scheme, our bi-monthly power bill has reduce by $100 ($290.10 down to $189.70, after deducting the price of the new power meter). Admittedly this is during some of Perth's sunniest months but the system was only operating for 5 of the 8 weeks covered by this power bill plus the swimming pool pump and garden bore pump were operating more often because of the hot weather. The system is performing even better that the Solar Shop salesman indicated.....under promise and over deliver.

Power bills used to be one of those dreaded pieces of mail: not now, bring on the next power bill. With W.A.'s new feed-in tariff scheme just starting we're confident of even greater savings in the future. Solar is the power of good!

UPDATE from Facebook - Reviews

... the workmanship on the expansion installation was fantastic.
I was impressed with the output from our 1.4kW system, now I'm over the moon with our 1.8kW system, just in time for W.A.'s increased buy back rates.....bring on the next power bill!

The Wirrell's solar power system

Solar Shop Australia Renewable Energy Advisor Chris Meiklejohn's solar power system

Well, who would have known working at Solar Shop Australia would come with such good benefits! Just ask Chris Meiklejohn, one of our NSW Renewable Energy Advisors.

Chris put our designers and engineers to the test with his 4.08kW home system that is made up of 68 GEB Kaneka Panels, (44 of them installed on a 50 Degree pitch).