Australia reaches 3GW of installed rooftop solar power!
Australia has smashed through the 3GW installed rooftop solar threshold, a landmark many are comparing to the 1 million solar home milestone reached in April.
Solar industry authority SunWiz made the announcement last week along with a number of insights into the nation’s solar trends.
A leap in solar installations has been driven by solar uptake in Queensland, the state contributing one third of the nation’s solar power systems. This has been driven by a rebuilding effort following a number of destructive weather occurrences forced Queenslanders to rebuild, and encouraged by generous feed-in tariffs they embraced a solar powered future.
According to the Clean Energy Council (CEC), 3GW can generate enough power over a year to run Melbourne’s train network for the next decade or power the Sydney Opera house for 230 years. As good as that may sound to Opera enthusiasts, the real world benefits for average Australians are plain to see – estimates show that 3GW of rooftop solar power can reduce Australia’s national energy costs by more than $3 million a day.
David Green from the CEC commented, “Household solar power gives consumers more control of their power bills by letting them generate their own electricity from the sun. And it helps to reduce the cost of our entire energy system on hot days when people everywhere have turned on their air-conditioners.”
SunWiz confirmed that with the lowering cost of installing solar panels, the average size of a rooftop solar system has super-sized from 1.5Kw to a massive 4kW in only four years. Solar Sunwerx often recommends systems between 3kW – 5kW for the best return on investment, allowing solar households to pay off the cost of their system faster and start enjoying the profits.
Electricity retailers are also feeling the effects of customers switching to solar, RenewEconomy reports that in September almost 10% of electricity consumed at midday was generated by solar panels, and reached an astounding 28% in South Australia.
This paradigm shift has, “started to change the way we look at energy,” says David Green. We tend to agree with him.
