Australia’s Remarkable Solar Power Growth

For the past couple of years Australia has made great strides with its use of solar power, to the extent that in the last 2 years we have had more solar PV panels installed for commercial and residential use then in the total time before that.

According to the Australian National PV Status Report the solar capacity of the country grew for more than 480% from 73 megawatts in 2009 to 378 megawatts in 2010.

The enormous growth in the industry was primarily driven by the Australian government’s solar bonuses and incentive schemes since 2008 which include solar rebates and the state feed in tariff schemes. More recently local councils have also been supporting various community programs to encouraged residents to embrace solar energy to reduce their electricity bills, and reduce their carbon footprints.

Recently demand has been assisted by the rapid reduction in prices of solar power systems thanks to increased demand & competition, more efficient manufacturing & improvements brought about by continued research and development in the industry.

In addition to the current small scale solar power credentials of the country are numerous large sized solar projects in the planning stages which will increase the figures above significantly.

For example; the Solar Dawn Project in Qld and the Moree Solar Farm in NSW are 2 of the largest of their kind in Australia, and will add another 400 MW of energy production between them once completed in a few years.

Also an announcement was recently made for the first utility scale solar projects in the country, which will be operational in the 3^rd quarter of 2012. Although the project is not as colossal as the two above the Greenough River Solar Farm is important as it will be opening doors to foreign renewable energy investments.

And thanks to the new billion dollars independently run commissions being establishedas part of the carbon tax program we can expect to see a more mid -large scale solar projects approved before the year ends.

The $10 billion Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency are the two statutory body that will assist the country holistically from households to businesses in the transition of the country. The research and development of emerging technologies is also a focus of the two bodies.

On a smaller scale many local city councils including indigenous regions are exerting strong efforts to introduce solar power to their communities to introduce new jobs and foreign investment.