About Us

B/W Solar is a Perth based WA family business and since 2000 the Sole Australian Importer for the solar pumping range. As of May 2007 B/W Solar has new owners, that being the Ingleton Family who have have taken over from the Wittwer family. Nothing has changed, you will still get the same great service, friendly advice and prompt back up to minimise costly down time.

Geoff Ingleton the new proprietor of B/W Solar was orignally a farmer in the West Australian wheatbelt. While farming Geoff had a keen intrest in water drilling and decided to purchase a machine to drill all his own bores on the farm. Word got around and in 1990 he went contacting whilst still farming but after a series of bad seasons he decided to sell the family farm and concertrate on drilling. In 2000 he started installing solar pumps and saw they were a product for the future, so when he saw the opportunity to purchase BW Solar he jumped at it and here we are today.

The applications of Photovoltaic Modules (PV's) are almost endless and the time is right to embrace this technology. Especially in developing countries or remote areas with no grid power, solar panels offer a clean and renewable source of electricity. PV's are an excellent economical alternative to traditional methods (eg. diesel generators.) Solar powered systems can easily be tailored or upgraded to the needs and means of the customer.

Solar Panels fitted onto a fixed array only have peak efficiency around midday, when the sun is directly overhead. This is not very cost and energy efficient: A fixed array makes poor use of solar energy, especially for water pumping where no batteries are used and an even power output is required all day long.

BW Solar uses a 5 Star tracking system designed by Bruno Wittwer in 1990 for Photovoltaic Modules with the intention to make PV's more cost effective because he constantly received complaints about how expensive PV's were. Even today we still believe tracking is far more economical as solar panels have not become cheaper and there is a world wide shortage of quality PV's.

Especially for solar water pumping, trackers are almost indispensable; as up to 50% more water is pumped per day. The increase in energy harnessed from tracking is ~30% more for storing in batteries and grid feed systems. BW Solar has improved the tracking arrays over the last 15 years to a point where breakdowns virtually no longer occur.

In 2000, B/W Solar started importing submersible pumps from the German manufacturer and is now the sole Australian importer for the entire Lorentz pumping range.