Australia has reached the 2 gigawatts of cumulative sub-100kW PV installation milestone this month and at least 45MW of solar panel installations larger than 100kW in capacity can be added to this figure.
The news comes from in-depth analysis of the REC Registry by solar consultancy firm SunWiz.
“This threshold has been reached in previously only-dreamed of rapidity, and has been paradoxically accelerated rather than decelerated by the removal of government incentives,” says SunWiz’s Warwick Johnston.
Various announcements of reductions in subsidies and incentives have triggered Australian households wanting to rein in rapidly increasing electricity bills by installing solar panels to act – but these scenarios also create a feast or famine situation, referred to by some as a “solar coaster”.
A stand-out event occurring this year was in Queensland; triggered by fears Premier Newman would slash the state’s solar feed in tariff. Those fears were realised, but not before nearly 100,000 people had applied for the higher rate – perhaps a different outcome to what Premier Newman intended.
“The nature of the SRES and state feed-in tariffs has been for steep step-declines in incentive levels that have in all likelihood resulted in more PV installed now than might have otherwise been the case,” says Mr. Johnston.
Reductions in solar subsidies are not over yet. The Solar Credits multiplier will be totally phased out next year; however the Productivity Commission and others have recommended this should occur sooner. Additionally, the Climate Change Authority’s (CCA) draft recommendations for the Renewable Energy Target include a suggestion that past the Solar Credits reduction, a “solar divisor” would be introduced in the form of reducing the number of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) accompanying systems below 1:1 under certain conditions.
While boom periods in uptake of solar panels have certainly kept installers busy; a boom is always followed by a bust – and in a bust, there are few winners. What is needed are more gradual adjustments says SunWiz.
