Rooftop Solar Systems Are Installed Every 2.8 Minutes In Australia

Originally published on RenewEconomy.

Households in Australia installed a rooftop solar system every 2.8 minutes in 2014 – almost the same rate as in the US, with barely 1/15 of the population.

According to data compiled by Green Energy Markets, and based around the issue of renewable energy certificates, a total of 185,890 solar systems were installed in Australia in 2014 – almost all of them on household rooftops. That made for a total of 816MW.

Queensland dominated with nearly one-third of installations, or just short of 60,000 homes, or 253MW. NSW added 37,215 systems, or 170MW, taking the total since it dumped its solar bonus scheme to 470MW – more than was installed when the tariff was more than 60c/kWh.

While households continue to dominate in number and scale, the uptake by businesses in “commercial scale” installations – from 10kW to 100kW – is increasing, particularly in states such as NSW, Queensland and Victoria.

Only two new “power stations” were accredited by the Clean Energy Regulator in December, according to the GEM data – a 300kW solar system at Bidvest Bibra Lake in Western Australia, and a 100kW system on the Soldiers Point Bowling Club in NSW.

There were 59,000 solar hot water systems added during the year across the country. One third of these were installed in Victoria.