Satellite images of Melbourne postcode 3029 show rooftops covered in solar panels, with more than 28,000 systems installed there since 2001, according to Australia's Clean Energy Regulator. The area includes the suburb of Tarneit, where local software engineer Saajidh Nizam said it was hard to see a house without panels. His own home runs on a 6.6kWh system.
Australia has about 4 million homes and small businesses with rooftop solar, covering around 36% of households, and generates more electricity per person from solar panels than anywhere else in the world.
Tristan Edis, director of analysis and advisory at Green Energy Markets, said relatively high electricity prices, less onerous regulation than in the United States, and Australia's low-density housing with ample roof space had driven adoption.
Installation records are still being set. The Clean Energy Council reported 102,234 systems installed in the second quarter of this year, the highest quarter on record, with records broken in every Australian state.
Ten years ago rooftop solar generated less than 3% of the country's electricity while coal supplied 75%. In the past 12 months, rooftop solar supplied almost 14%, with coal down to 50%.
A spokesperson for the Australian Energy Market Operator said rooftop solar had "fundamentally changed the electricity system" and given millions of consumers a more active role in how they produce, use and store electricity. Solar has reduced demand for grid electricity and pushed wholesale prices to zero or negative in the middle of the day. The national electricity market, which supplies more than 85% of the population, now routinely gets more than 40% of its daytime electricity from rooftops, peaking above 60%, and new rules require retailers in most areas to offer three hours of free electricity every day.
Home batteries are also expanding quickly, with half a million installed since July last year under a federal government program. A government watchdog found households with solar and batteries had bills between 20% and 52% lower than regular electricity customers, and participants in virtual power plants had bills 57% to 63% lower. According to Edis, the traditional evening peak is now being flattened as solar-charged batteries kick in.