Author: Site Admin

By end of today, Wednesday 17 September, Stephen Breheny and his 3 installation teams will have installed MASH+ solar systems for 23 customers.  That’s up from 18 systems at end of Friday 12 September. Steve says that there are 10 more pallets of solar panels left in his warehouse. Each pallet has 6Kw of solar power; so 60Kw more to install in this first bulk order – and that’s for 23 customers. Steve reckons that these remaining customers should be installed over the next 2-3 weeks and the next bulk order for 50 systems will be placed towards end of September.

Other progress on the MASH+ rollout is that Steve is expecting to have completed all the site visits by end of this week. He’s been working weekends to get around to everyone’s homes to make this happen. Good job, Steve!

Read Neil Barrett’s column in The Midland Express (week 8, 26/8/2014) on the MASH+ solar truck arriving in Castlemaine; leasing vs buying; ‘goodies and baddies’ in electrical retailing; and latest stats on global temperatures . Here’s an extract:

“The MASH+ project has suggested people who are strapped for cash enquire about a loan from the Community First Credit Union at just over six per cent. Early indications are that the folk at CFCU have been great to deal with. If paid off over 10 years a loan for a 3kW system will cost $52 per month in repayments and interest. Contrast that with the benefits: put simply, a family paying 29c per kWh from the grid and using 50 per cent of the solar it produces, should save around $60 per month on its power bills.”

“Three big electricity retailers – Origin, AGL and Energy Australia – have recently been strongly opposing the Renewable Energy Target. This has led Greenpeace to set up the Green Electricity Guide to help consumers figure out who are the ‘goodies’ and the ‘baddies’ in the battle over renewable energy. The ‘goodies’ according to Greenpeace include Powershop, Momentum, Diamond and Red.”

Read the full article here.

A truck delivering around 700 panels for the first 50 paid-up customers for the MASH+ solar panels bulk-buy scheme arrived in Castlemaine today (Friday 22 August, 2014). This first bulk order under the MASH+ (Mount Alexander Solar Homes) project will save our Shire and neighbouring Shires 175 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year or a total of 3,500 tonnes over the lifetime of the panels. It’s also equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions generated by 100 people driving their car 11 kilometres each day over the period of one year.

Further ‘batch orders’ will be placed in the coming weeks in smaller lots of around 10 systems at a time, in order to ensure that customers get their solar panels installed on their homes as quickly as possible. With now over 270 householders registered for the MASH+ solar panel bulk-buy project, we are focussing on the installation process to make it as smooth as possible for MASH+ customers. Stephen Breheny, our lead installer for MASH+, has 3 installation teams trained up and ready to start installing systems from the start of next week.

Registrations for the MASH+ project will close on Sunday 31 August, 2014, so anyone in Mt Alexander Shire or neighbouring Shires who is interested in ‘going solar with MASH+’ should visit the website at www.hubfoundation.org.au and complete the no-obligation registration form before that date. Alternatively, call Jo Kaptein on 0455-589-065 to register or if you have any questions.

MASH+ has broken through the 200 mark! We now have 200+ registrations of interest from Shire residents who are interested in ‘going solar’. Interesting fact: our clients are ordering an average of 4kW (16 panels) which is in line with the national trend. Now, our job is to deliver great service in the delivery process!

Read all about it in this week’s Midland Express Solar Matters column written by Neil Barrett of The Hub Foundation.