The Natural Grid, Independent Solar Solutions

29/06/2023

One very happy customer showing off his new Victron off-grid system.

15/06/2023

Another happy Denmark customer with her Tiny off-Grid system. 31kwh/day solar produced, giving her a home that is winter ready.

08/06/2023

We are thrilled to announce the completion of our latest solar power installation at Spring Waters Estate, taking their new development off-grid.

Let's get technical! Our state-of-the-art setup boasts an impressive capacity of generating 24kw, backed by a whopping 60kWh of lithium battery storage. 🚀🔋

At the heart of our system lies our locally designed and manufactured components, showcasing the best of Australian innovation. 🇦🇺 Our panels are perfectly positioned with a North-facing 30-degree angle and equipped with bi-facial technology, capturing sunlight from both sides. To maximise efficiency, the ground and container are reflective surfaces, amplifying solar input by up to 25%! 🌤️✨

Working with Spring Waters Estate on this project has been an absolute pleasure. Your commitment to quality and attention to detail during the construction of the space and tilt array subframe has surpassed our expectations. It has made it a breeze for us to deliver a high-quality system that will serve you for years to come. 🌱🏡

Join us in celebrating this sustainable milestone as we pave the way towards a brighter future powered by the sun! ☀️💚

01/06/2023

What do you get with The Natural Grid?
Initial consultation
Verbal report and recommendations with a written quote, production estimate & financial report.
Detailed site and load assessment (future needs included)

All are delivered with the experience that comes from a business where the person you talk to is the one who understands solar and batteries, lives off-grid himself, designs & installs the system and follows your job through to its final stages.

18/05/2023

Father and son install for The Natural Grid.

04/05/2023

Our new social media manager is hard at work. We'd love to hear your Natural Grid Solar Solutions stories.

31/12/2022

A scattering of photos from this years work, lots have not been included.

Building new shed area at home to cater for the extra volume of panels and equipment needed to cope with the freight and ordering delay as well as give an ability to tackle larger jobs took up a reasonable chunk of the year also.

31/12/2022

Last job of the year, snuck in with a day to spare.

A little drama was had on the last day with getting to site and finding the cable run to the meter box flooded, a Lilly pond over flowed. But a lot of help from the owner we got the run completed and connected to the grid.

Adding this large DC coupled 17.2kW array and batteries to the flower farm’s existing solar will see them be effectively carbon neutral in electricity and enough to cover their planned move to EV use.

Thanks Leuca Creek for choosing The Natural Grid to provide green power in the fight against climate change.

Leuca Creek Waterlily Flowers

PowerPlus Energy, Selectronic Australia, Clenergy, & Supply Partners

05/12/2021

Late afternoon photos to wrap up this two day Victron and ground mount off grid instal.

Multiplus II 3000kVA
5.92kW of PV with Victron MPPT RS 450/100
And 5kWh of EV power lithium (more to come when needed)
Cerbo and GSM modem for remote monitoring.

Just a weekender power supply and site power to build with. A shed will be built giving more shelter to the inverter at some point. But the customer wants the small house first.
A challenging site to work on and get the 2t trailer down 🙂
Western Power took months to get back to them to attempt a quote to bring power 30m to the disconnected meter box, then they still tried to charge them $500 for not being quick enough, too late too sad for the grid. This system is cheaper in the long run than the grid anyway.
A happy customer who is happy with the limits of a small off grid power system and just wanted to have a system that expanded in the future as their weekender turned into a permanent residence.

25/11/2021

Effectively all the inverters will loose their approval on the 18 of Dec and there is a long backlog in the approval process.

Solar industry calls for clarity as inverters with integrated DC isolators face becoming non-compliant "overnight" due to changes to Australian certification requirements.

07/11/2021

Talk to me if you need more information on what might be the best setup for you.

As solar quotes have a limited number of installers in and tend to draw from out of area installers, please talk to me directly for a local quote.

By Finn Peacock - Chartered Electrical Engineer, Ex-CSIRO, Founder of SolarQuotes.com.au

07/11/2021

The WA SW grid needs to adapt to more solar. Part 2

The two changes coming are:
1) Strategic remote solar shutdowns (like now in South Australia).
All systems are about to need an additional device with an internet connection and a third party “Agent” who will, under orders from Western Power, reduce or shut down your PV output to zero export or even no production to create load again on the grid.

2) Encouragement of battery connections.
But in my guess, this will not be in the form of a rebate, as no mention has ever been made of it, quite the opposite. This has already been seen by the change to the feed-in Tarif and will soon be in the form of allowing larger than 5kW inverter systems as export controlled so they can adequately service a larger battery to help peak times. To be primarily approved at first on rural networks as they experience the most stress. A first for WA, this will make the economics of larger installation better and more able to fully charge batteries over the winter months while reducing excess midday export to the grid.

If charge control is set correctly, batteries help the duck curve, as seen in the article below. Still, the batteries need to be big enough to offset most household usage. When sized appropriately, the levelised cost of power to the household is cheaper than the grid and will see a payback period in the 7-12 year range while removing troublesome blackouts.

https://reneweconomy.com.au/household-battery-storage-still-best-fix-for-solar-duck-curve-problem-82656/amp/

EV’s make a great way of absorbing this excess PV, and I have customers who have good results with this, cheap driving on essentially excess solar. EV’s reduces payback times on solar/battery systems drastically also. I will post more on this later.

Large grid operated storage is an option but not of so much use in rural areas. However, by taking control of your power with solar and batteries, you could be saving money and reducing blackouts, plus helping the planet.

As with any industry, we are experiencing covid related supply and price changes, so please think ahead and discuss your needs with me ahead of time to save the most.