Australia is fast becoming the country with the most solar power generation per person in the world. The domestic market is very different to most other countries, as it is dominated by rooftop PV. Electricity for the people by the people — 13 gigawatts (GW) are now on the nation’s rooftops. That’s nearly 1 kilowatt (kW) of panels for every one person. Two states — Queensland and South Australia — have averages of close to 40% of their homes powered by solar, and a significant number of localities in those states have adoption of rooftop solar over 50%.
image courtesy of National Survey Report of PV Power Applications in AUSTRALIA 2020.
There has been a staggering tenfold increase since 2011. If we include utility-scale and business-level solar, the total installed capacity across all sectors has nearly tripled to 20.8 GW in three years.
“With the addition of 4.5 GW of new solar on rooftops and ground mount combined, the total installed capacity at the end of 2020 reached 20.8 GW, meaning Australia now leads the world in solar per capita with 810W/person, ahead of Germany with 650W/person. 2021 looks set to extend this lead,” the National Survey Report of PV Power Applications in AUSTRALIA 2020 states.
“Technology is moving faster than policy and regulation and to maintain the rapid pace of renewable energy deployment, Australia needs to support national electricity market reforms and provide policy certainty to support the needed electricity infrastructure investments and additional electricity transmission, energy storage and demand response mechanisms.”
Looking to the future, Australia’s rooftop market is expected to remain strong through to 2030.
And the lump of coal sitting on the front bench in the House of Representatives STILL thinks there’s no future in renewables?
Hat tip to Renew Economy.
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