3 days Ago By Mike Foley
The four million households reaping the rewards of rooftop panels are set to lose what remains of solar feed-in tariffs in coming years due to a glut of daytime renewable energy supply, but a push is now on for the federal government to supercharge household batteries. Feed-in tariffs – payments to households for sending unused power back to the grid – and subsidies on purchase or installation drove massive solar panel take-up over almost two decades, making Australians the most enthusiastic installers in the world. In the 12 months to July, rooftop solar generated nearly double the amount of electricity that came from large-scale solar farms.
Credit: Fairfax Media Energy Minister Chris Bowen attended a rooftop solar installation in western Sydney last week to mark the four-millionth system being hooked up. “Solar energy on our rooftops is in many ways our most important form of energy in our national energy market,” Bowen said. In the 12 months to July, rooftop solar generated nearly double the amount of electricity that came from large-scale solar farms.
But feed-in tariffs have fallen from about 20¢ a kilowatt-hour to 5¢ or less over the past decade as renewables in the electricity grid have lessened energy retailers’ demand for household solar during the day. Loading With solar panels still proving popular as a way to reduce energy bills, climate advocates and energy experts say batteries, which can retail from $10,000 to $15,000, should be the next beneficiary of government subsidies. This would allow households to store the solar power that is not needed by the grid during the day and reduce their reliance on the grid at night, when it is powered largely by coal and expensive gas-fired generation.
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