Australia’s rooftop solar capacity will overtake that of coal-fired power stations and become the country’s biggest power producer in April, when a coal-fired power plant in New South Wales is due to close, solar consultant SunWiz says.
Rooftop solar will soon become Australia’s largest source of electricity generation, overtaking coal from April when the Liddell coal-fired power station is due to retire. Australia’s installed capacity for rooftop solar just hit the 20GW mark, with more than 3.4 million solar systems installed in Australian households and businesses, according to an analysis of the Clean Energy Regulator’s REC register.
“When the Liddell coal-fired power station closes in April 2023, the rooftop solar plant will have a larger capacity than the remaining coal-fired power plants operating across the country,” said Warwick Johnston, CEO of SunWiz.
Australia is currently the world leader in the utilization of solar energy with more than 1.2 kW of solar electricity per person.
“Australia’s solar systems are more affordable than any other country, so it’s understandable that we’re at the top of the world in per capita solar use,” Johnston said.
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There are more than 8,000 accredited solar installers in Australia, Sunwiz said. In addition to rooftop PV systems, there are more than 11 GW of larger industrial solar power systems and grid-scale solar power plants, it added.
- Queensland hosts over 5.2GW of rooftop solar, with 1,000,000 installations soon
- New South Wales is the market currently installing the most rooftop solar at nearly 100MW per month
- South Australia leads the way per household, with 45% of homes having solar power systems
- The Australian Capital Territory was the country’s fastest growing market in 2022
