There were reports of electrical problems with solar installations in
Melbourne amongst other places. My son in Melbourne has had panels
installed. Does anyone know just what were the problems ?
When next in Melbourne I would like to check it.

Bazz links in my post above can help.
Remember some of the faults are small,some complaints put in by competitors, such is life in a competitive world.
Nothing beats expert advice.
Buy only from well known and documented folk.
Make very sure to contact other customers for opinions.
Get all warranty's in writing, have you legal man/woman look at it.
My installed panels, are great and fool proof.
INSTALLATION! here is the big one be aware skills are needed on your roof not dills.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/worlds-largest-solar-plants-for-nsw-qld-20110618-1g8my.html
I found this link while searching for some thing else in Goggle USA.
It confirms the future of solar power.
Many may know, I did, its major problem is you can not store it, put it back in the grid yes but storage is a problem
However my battery system while very effective is primitive in terms of what the future holds.
Battery and Capacitor technology is fast catching up and very cheap and effective storage is almost here.
Stand alone home and business Solar is in our future.

Storage I think will always be a problem. It will always be costly.
Battery voltage of course does not fall until almost discharged.
Super capacitors look useful, but they have the disadvantage that as
they discharge the voltage falls.
That increases the cost of the invertor.
Towards the end of their discharge cycle they will be outputting
very high current levels, probably in the order of a 100 amps or so.

If you have mains available you will save a lot of money over stand
alone installation as you can consider the mains as a perfect battery.
What you put in you get back.

However, if you want no break power then batteries are essential.
You might need a backup generator as well.
The whole activity makes for a good hobby.

All true Bazz but boy are we moving, great leaps and bounds are being made.
Battery technology for this very purpose ,is marching away.
And like a lot of things ham radio is playing its part long ago we had remote battery driven sites and emergency generators too.
With goggle and others investing billions in to big solar generation the problems,and profits, in over night storage and stand alone ability is sure to be solved.

Widespread viability of solar is amongst other things contingent on a lack of cloud/dust cover. If we get too reliant on Solar (with short to medium term storage) we would be in really big trouble in the event of significant changes to the amount of sunlight reaching the solar collectors.

Impacts of climate change are one thing that could cause massive changes to the amount of cloud cover.
Significant volcanic activity or a largish meteor strike could cloud the earth's atmosphere for years (and have a massive impact on access to biomass fuels as well).

Energy alternatives which rely on a particular climate model continuing should never be allowed to become a big portion of the base supply.

R0bert