The latest figures from Australia’s regulator show that the nation is edging closer to the 2 million mark on rooftop solar installations.
The figures from the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) show Australia now has a combined 6.29 GW of rooftop solar installed.
Rooftop solar is one way of harnessing the sun’s energy to combat the effects of heat on the main power grid.
Summer strain from air-conditioners and refrigeration units puts enough pressure on the grid to cause outages in some cases.
Rooftop solar installations through the roof
According to the CER, Australia installed 1,778,687 rooftop PV systems as of 1 December 2017. In addition to solar PV, 1,077,079 solar water heaters, including air source heat pumps were installed.
During the calendar year up to December, Queensland (37,467), New South Wales (32,871), and Western Australia (26,304) led the pack in terms of the number of small-scale-solar projects deployed.
STCs – the installation subsidy for solar panels
These small-scale solar projects – such as rooftop solar panels – come with a rebate on installation via STCs. The feed-in tariff is another incentive to install solar.
Last year, Australia commissioned more than 1 GW of solar, according to analysis from consultancy firm SunWiz, and multiple other records were broken.
In addition, the future looks bright for solar. A predicted increase in demand for Small-scale technology certificates (STCs) in 2018 which will affect the STC price is good news for solar retailers and customers.
According to a new analysis by the Australian Clean Energy Regulator, there was a 25 per cent increase in STCs in 2017. This is likely to continue into 2018.
STCs are created by the installation of a small-scale renewable energy system, like a rooftop solar system. They are a kind of upfront subsidy on your home solar installation.
The higher the STC price, the more of a discount on the cost of installation the customer receives. This discount is passed on to the customer by the solar installer, for example Energy Matters.
