LG is serious about solar with another product launch planned in early 2017.
The company's focus for 2017 is to address many of the challenges faced by commercial users.
With a well resourced local team and a strong technical capability, LG has set its sights on the commercial market, according to Russ Prendergast, LG's marketing manager for solar.
“There is a lot of interest in renewable designs and the simplest solution is solar,” he said.
“After labor costs the next biggest expense for business is energy costs and with the emergence of battery technology real solutions are now available that can deliver significant savings.”
Prendergast said LG is positioning itself as an innovative, high quality provider – qualities that differentiate the company from the rest of the market.
“LG's strongest advantage is our after sales support and our quality products, it's not just about competing on price alone,” he said.
“When investing in renewables buyers need to focus on the total cost of the build not just upfront costs because purchasing decisions cannot be made on price alone.
“It's about long term efficiency, long term maintenance. Replacing a panel on a standard installation can be a high cost and it's one that is often overlooked.”
With LG products, he said the focus is on quality and high efficiency output.
“There isn't a lot of spare roof space so panels with high efficiency output are a better option,” Prendergast said.
LG's commitment to high efficiency output was demonstrated with the recent launch of NeON 2 BiFacial, a panel which enables light to be harvested from both sides. With a peak capacity of 300W the panel is capable of generating output equivalent to a 375W conventional panel.
Solar is set to make significant inroads into the commercial HVAC market now that battery storage adoption is on the rise in Australia.
While residential solar is already well established, Australia's commercial market is only beginning to capitalise on local renewable energy investments.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) renewables surpassed coal last year to become the largest source of installed power in the world. In the next five years renewables will cover more than 60 per cent of global power capacity growth.
This will drive massive change with battery storage capacity expected to grow 50-fold in less than a decade. Australia is expected to be one of the largest markets for battery storage due to the high cost of electricity.
A Clean Energy Council report has predicted the market for solar systems with battery storage to reach $24 billion.
“Globally, the market for solar PV panels and battery storage is expected to grow tenfold in less than five years – from 90 MW in 2014 to 900 MW in 2018,” the council said.