Your own power
The Northern Rivers sits at the end of the grid, and everyone who lives here knows what that means.
The power goes out, and it stays out longer than it does in town.
A house that makes its own electricity and stores it doesn't depend on that line. The roof makes the power during the day, the battery carries the house through the night, and what you generate you use yourself. The grid is still there when you want it. You just stop relying on it.
Some people come to this for the environment, some because they are tired of blackouts, and some because they want to know the house will run whatever happens. The system is much the same in each case.
What we do
Byron Bay Solar doesn't install anything. We work through the design with you and find the right installer to build it.
We look at your house, your power use and what you want it to do in five years. Then we recommend the equipment and the local installer suited to that job.
A beach house in Suffolk Park and forty acres at Federal are different jobs, and they often suit different installers.
The people behind it have spent decades in this industry, designing systems, installing them, and working with installers and their customers.
When the grid goes down
When Cyclone Alfred came through in March 2025, more than 84,000 homes and businesses in the Northern Rivers lost power, some for days.
Power reaches most hinterland properties along a single line through the trees. It was not the first time and it won't be the last.
A battery will not run the house in an outage unless the system was designed for backup, and many are not.
Start with what you want to keep running: the fridge, the water pump, the septic, the gate, the office. The system is designed around that list.
For a new build on acreage a long way from the nearest pole, off-grid is worth pricing against a grid connection.
The all-electric house
Solar is the simple part. The work is in the control.
A lot of homes here now run on electricity alone, with an induction cooktop, a heat pump for hot water, a pool and a car or two charging in the garage.
The car charges from the roof and not the grid, the hot water heats at midday, and the battery is full before a storm arrives.
It runs itself and shows you what it's doing on your phone.
The roof runs the house, fills the battery, heats the water and charges the car.
On the roof
Where the panels go is your call.
Some people put them out the front, loud and proud. Some fill every face of the roof. A full roof makes more power, and more of it is yours to use.
If the look of standard panels isn't for you, all-black panels are an option.
Near the beach, salt gets into frames, fixings and cable connections. Gear rated for the coast lasts longer here.
Up at Federal and Coorabell the problem is trees. A camphor laurel on the boundary can shade half an array by mid-afternoon, so the layout gets worked out standing on the property, not from a satellite image.
How it works
Three steps, and the first takes two minutes.
- You tell us about the property.
- We work out what suits it and match you with one local installer.
- They visit, put a design and a price together, and build. We're here if you'd like a second opinion along the way.
Where
From Ballina to Tweed Heads, inland to Clunes.
- Byron Bay
- Suffolk Park
- Bangalow
- Federal
- Newrybar
- Coorabell
- Clunes
- Mullumbimby
- Brunswick Heads
- Ocean Shores
- Lennox Head
- Ballina
- Kingscliff
- Tweed Heads
Enquire
Tell us about the property.
Five short questions. Your details go to one local installer and nobody else.