Of the more than 2.5 million small scale renewable energy systems now installed across Australia, solar PV arrays (unsurprisingly) make up the majority.
According to information from the Clean Energy Regulator; the number of small renewable energy systems in the country as at May 1 came to 2,511,094.
That figure doesn’t include the systems for which Small-scale Technology Certificates (STC’s) had not yet been deemed. These certificates form the basis of subsidies for renewable energy energy systems that can reduce the cost of acquisition by thousands of dollars (a subsidy that will begin decreasing reasonably soon).
The breakdown of system types installed across Australia:
Hydro systems – 18
Solar PV panel systems – 1,537,086
Wind systems – 403
Solar water heaters (including air source heat pumps) – 973,587
While wind power in a residential scenario seems to capture a lot of interest when people start exploring renewable energy options, they often choose solar power instead as wind is often often not a good solution due to turbulence and sheltering caused by nearby structures.
With regard to solar power systems, the state leaderboard shows Queensland continues to lead the pack in terms of number of systems installed as at May 1 – and by a big margin.
Queensland – 473,257
New South Wales – 333,450
Victoria – 284,355
Western Australia – 201,280
South Australia – 195,718
Tasmania – 26,862
Australian Capital Territory – 16,716
Northern Territory -5,448
For solar hot water and heat pump systems; New South Wales is in the lead for installations, but Queensland is a close second:
New South Wales – 255,027
Queensland – 249,514
Victoria – 223,598
Western Australia – 152,892
South Australia – 54,896
Northern Territory – 16,913
Tasmania – 11,149
Australian Capital Territory – 9,598
Postcode level information for the above can be downloaded from the Clean Energy Regulator’s website.
Trivia: In 2001, there were only around 118 small-scale solar power systems installed in Australia. The biggest jumped in terms of percentage growth was between 2008 (14,064) and 2009 (62,916)
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