Rooftop solar will soon become Australia’s largest power generation source as it is set to overtake coal from April, when the Liddell coal-fired power station is scheduled to retire. The installed capacity of rooftop solar in Australia just hit the 20 GW mark, with over 3.4 million solar power systems installed on Australian households and businesses, according to analysis from the Clean Energy Regulator’s REC Registry.
“When the Liddell coal-fired power station closes in April 2023, rooftop solar will have a greater capacity than the remaining coal-fired power stations operating across the country,” says Warwick Johnston, managing director of consultancy SunWiz.
Australia leads the world in solar uptake, with over 1.2 kW of solar power per person.
“Australian solar power systems are more affordable than in any other country, so it’s understandable that we lead the world in per-capita uptake of solar,” Johnston added.
There are over 8,000 accredited solar installers in Australia, Sunwiz said, and together with their assistants and employers they install over 300,000 solar systems each year.
In addition to rooftop solar systems, there are over 11 GW of larger industrial solar power systems and grid-scale solar farms, Sunwiz found.
Solar by state:
- Queensland plays host to over 5.2GW of rooftop solar power, and will soon hit 1,000,000 installations.
- NSW is the market currently installing the greatest amount of rooftop solar power each month, installing nearly 100 MW.
- SA leads in per-household uptake, with 45% of dwellings hosting a solar power system. The national average is 31%.
- ACT was the highest growth market in Australia in 2022.
- Solar Victoria has been responsible for driving growth in volumes and improved standards across residential solar, energy storage systems, and small commercial PV systems.
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“Solar by state: ”
…
Wot about WA?
Whilst the eastern states might not regard us as such, we ARE (more or less) a state of Australia…
And, the AEMO has apparently seized control of the electricity grids and regulations of WA.
Reference to the generating capacity in terms of kW per household, or, per person, by state/territory, would be good.
Reminds me of cheering a child as it learns to Crawl.. and then Walk.. Run.. etc..
So.. Australia a Nation of 25 Million People, Installs 50 GW of PV Panels generating 60TWh/yr .. and applauds 👏👏👏, celebrates 🍺🍺🍺.. etc..
The above comes to 2,400KWh/person/yr.. !!!
However, Australians use 30,000 KWh / person /yr.. or 750TWh/yr for the Nation.
This will require 600+TW of PV Panels.. As you can see.. this 50GW just represents the first “crawling steps” of a toddler… only….
Australia has Miles to Go.. before it can Sleep… .
First, Australia needs governments (at both the state and federal levels), where the members are not being paid by the fossil fuel companies.
20 Gw of rooftop solar often providing 9+Gw of daytime electricity represents 9+Gw of coal or gas NOT being burned. It’s a big change form just 5 years ago. It often represents up to 1/3rd of electrical demand during the day.
I think your figures are out. When you say Australia needs 600 Tw of panels, you’re saying we need 30,000 times the 20 Gw we have now. We’ll probably have at least another 20Gw within the next 4 or 5 years. Yes, we’ll need more, but with more powerful, cheaper and lighter panels inevitably on their way, hitting 70 – 80Gw+ by 2035 is quite likely (and way more if Green H2 takes off).