You know we love featuring the dogs and cats of our new solar families, but today we’re featuring a special Inner West resident: a baby Brush Tail possum.
It was captured by one of our preferred solar installers, Brett Bidwell, while installing solar PV in Drummoyne last month. “The possum in the pic was a juvenile Brush Tail Possum,” Brett told us. “It was with its mother.
Solar panels and possums
The nest was right where one of the cables was being run. The mother took off and was seen by my colleague Loretta heading up a tree in the backyard, I took the juvenile to the same tree and released it.”
Thanks for being so brave, Brett!
This was our first solar installation in Drummoyne, for former deputy state Coroner Hugh Dillon and his wife Anne.
Hugh has in his career had to deal with incredibly complex matters – the inquest into the 2007 ferry disaster on Sydney Harbour, the 2013 bushfires that ravaged Warrumbungles National Park, and an explosion at a winery, to name but three – but when it came to getting a solar PV system, he and Anne needed help.
Enter Inner West Community Energy!
Hugh and Anne had been thinking about solar for years but never managed to feel comfortable about the process. So we helped them establish what sort of system would suit them best, introduced them to one of our preferred solar installers, and then helped them get a solar-compatible meter.
Unusually, after Hugh and Anne had decided on the approximate size of the system, and we’d endorsed the resulting quote, they then decided they wanted to spend a bit more on a bigger system.
Hugh, who works part-time at the University of NSW in coronial law, is now working from home under a 5.475 kilowatt system comprising 14 Canadian Solar panels and 14 Enphase IQ+ microinverters.
Microinverters are specified when there’s a lot of shading that affects some panels but not all of them, or when the panels are facing different directions, or both, as with this installation.
“It was great to have you guys as a trustworthy broker who could guide us through the system,” Hugh says. “Because we were ignorant about this stuff.”
Anne added: “The thought of navigating the techno-babble and having to assess whether the installer was competent and the quote reasonable seemed all too difficult. Having a not-for-profit community organisation to guide us through made it painless.
“We had concerns that the panels would be an eyesore. Happily, they look OK and can barely be seen.”
Our next Solar Information Night!
If you live in the Inner West and would like help going solar, get in touch through our website. Or come along to our next Solar Information Night on Tuesday, November 24. Venue? We’re not sure yet, but let us know if you’re interested and we’ll let you know when we finalise the venue. It’ll be somewhere in the Inner West, of course.
- Gavin Gilchrist
- Project Manager
- Mob: 0407 663 125
- Email: gavin.gilchrist@innerwestcommunityenergy.org.au