Australian Rooftop Solar Up 33% Over Past Year
According to the Solar Trends Report released by the Australian PV Institute, rooftop solar PV has increased by around 33% over the past year, and could provide up to 14% of the grid’s electricity by 2023.
The reasons for the increase have been attributed to a surge in businesses and homes putting solar on their roofs, as well as the industry’s ability to maximise output.
There is around 43GW-61GW of solar rooftop potential in Australia, according to Solar Citizens director Joseph Scales, who commissioned the report, and currently only about 12-16% is being used. This indicates that there may still plenty of “low hanging fruit” before Australia even gets close to reaching rooftop solar saturation.
Despite federal energy policy uncertainty, which may have partially contributed to the drop in large and small scale rebate value, investment in both wind and solar is booming, as reported by the Clean Energy Council. Around $20 billion has been invested in 2018 as of 5th December 2018.
On top of recent claims that Australia could be on track to achieve 78% renewable energy generation by 2030, recent news puts future solar adoption in a very positive light.