The Future of Solar in Australia!

The Future of Solar in Australia!

The future of solar power technology has enormous potential. Industry trends suggest that solar power systems are becoming a key player in energy production in Australia, whether in wide-scale companies or in Aussies’ households.

With the recent removal of Prime Mister Malcolm Turnbull from his position last month, and was replaced by treasurer, Scott Morrison, one can expect an improvement in terms of renewable trends in the country. But don’t take it from the new Prime Minister Scott Morrison as a lot of industry updates show that the future solar looks so bright in Australia and there’s no way but up for solar energy.

 

SOLAR POWER BOOM

According to industry analysts, a surge of large-scale solar farms could almost double Australia’s solar energy capability in a single year which is evident on the massive growth of rooftop installations for the last months. Australia’s growth in rooftop solar shows no sign of slowing down, and in fact it is in increasing trend with a record of 351MW in the quarter of the year, which already 56% of last year’s installations, industry statistician SunWiz says.

(Source: SunWiz)

 

In terms of states, New South Wales again pipped Queensland, with just under of 32MW introduced in the most recent month, taking its total to more than 1.5GW. Queensland still leads the total aggregate with 2.05GW. Victoria and South Australia are also gaining strong record months while South Australia is now at 895 of rooftop solar. SunWiz says Victoria now leads the market for systems of 30kW to 100kW – which is the small to medium size business market, although South Australia is also seeing strong growth in this segment.

(Source: SunWiz)

Household

The increased growth in solar installs is apparent in the number of households choosing solar as their source of energy. In fact, it has passed the three million mark, according to the latest data from the Clean Energy Regulator, as homes and businesses continue to take the power back against rising energy costs.

 

(Source: Clean Energy Regulator)

 

The CER said that this new small-scale solar milestone had been boosted by increasing installs of households that showed one in five Australian homeowners are now generating their own power. Millions of small-scale solar systems had the consolidated capacity to produce – or in solar hot water’s case – around 12.9 million megawatt-hours of electricity a year.

 

Commercial

The overall performance of Australia PV is not only brought by the increasing need and demand in the small home solar installs but also in commercial sector. With new data from the Australian PV Institute showing that there is a tremendous 35GW of solar farms in the nation’s planning and development pipeline, large-scale solar is on the right track in Australia this year. In its most recent annual report to the International Energy Agency, APVI says 2018 looks to be another record-breaking year for Australian solar PV, backed up by a booming huge solar market and “remarkable” financial fundamentals for commercial PV.

 

(Source: Reneweconomy)

 

In 2017, Australia’s total installed PV capacity cruise past 7.2GW, and record for about 4% of power demand. There is currently more than 1900MW of solar farms under development and 35GW in different phases of development, the report said.

Aside from solar farms, small and medium businesses that are installing rooftop solar to cut expenses and acquire independence from the grid have helped to achieve another booming month, with a sum of 126MW installed across last June. The latest data from solar analysts SunWiz shows that while installations fell for the month from May’s record volume, they fell to a level that was still the second-highest recorded.

 

(Source: SunWiz)

 

In connection with revolutionary transformation to solar, half of Australia’s businesses are actively shifting to less expensive sustainable energy source, including going off the framework by building their own generators and battery banks, as power bills threaten their profitability.

Numerous organizations – including 46% of large operations – have been looking for cleaner energy. The Climate Council report said the capacity of Australian businesses to create their own power solution had multiplied in under two years.

 

Conclusion

It is always been a high time for solar power in Australia since the emergence of cleaner energy options. Even though the government has a little work and action yet to leverage towards the solar trends, the industry is still in full capacity and in high potential to meet the need of the market whether in large-scale businesses or household solar installs. There are no signs that the projections from different industry statisticians will ever be going down. Nonetheless, Australia PV should always keep an eye on the growing need of the market.
As Renate Egan, APVI Chair and Associate Professor at UNSW said, “Australia leads the world in rooftop solar, but there is still lots of potential for adding more solar, and it’s now the cheapest form of electricity generation.”

 

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Article Sources:

Parkinson, G. (2018, April 5). Australian rooftop solar boom rolls on – 351MW in first quarter. Retrieved from /3fa36676eb4906ee55a0d0697ed3d5ca/australian-rooftop-solar-boom-rolls-on-351mw-in-first-quarter-26595/

Smee, B. (2018, May 14). Almost half of Australian big business moving to renewables. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/15/almost-half-of-australian-big-business-moving-to-renewables

Vorrath, S. (2018, June 21). Small solar installs pass 3 million mark in Australia. Retrieved from  /ac7082590cf8d6e3271f6803f4c09fee/small-solar-installs-pass-3-million-mark-australia/

Vorrath, S. (2018, July 5). Commercial solar boom delivers second-best rooftop PV month on record. Retrieved from /ac7082590cf8d6e3271f6803f4c09fee/commercial-solar-boom-delivers-second-best-rooftop-pv-month-record

Vorrath, S. (2018, July 16). Australia has 35GW of solar farms in development pipeline. Retrieved from   /3fa36676eb4906ee55a0d0697ed3d5ca/australia-35gw-solar-farms-development-pipeline-36362/