Going Solar Report - 1 Million Australian Households with Rooftop Solar

As Australia celebrated the passing of the 23 Million person in the country, so the Centre for Policy Development has found, 1 million households have installed rooftop Solar in its new report "Going Solar".
The ABS puts the average household size at 2.6 people, meaning 2,600,000 Australians or possibly more think having Solar on their roof will help ameliorate the anticipated electricity price rises.

Going Solar Report, Centre of Policy Development

So I will take time to sit in the sun streaming through my north facing windows and read this report. Particularly the parts on Feed-In-Tarriffs, solar consumer complaints and demographics of those who installed solar. This last relates to a previous report by Australian Government and the Solar PV Program by Andrew MacInstosh of the Australia Insitute and reported by me on 29 Nov 2010 . Equity of access to solar is a problem, but so is equity of access to housing for low-income individuals. I haven't noticed support for various schemes to encourage first home buyers to be abandoned because some can't access that scheme.

Andrew mentioned here that the take-up of solar was by the more affluent households. I would argue, from looking at the large numbers in my suburb whose socio-economic status is middle-low income, that this is not now the case. But there is no doubting that if you don't own your roof you can't invest in Solar Power.

This current report indicates that the drivers of cost reductions in the PV industry has been the large decreases in manufacturing costs as China manufactures and install more Solar. This is predicted to continue.

"Socket Parity" is the term used in this report, pg 14, to show countries whose Solar PV costs have fallen to parity or better against traditional fossil fuel electricity generation.

CPD"Going Solar"Report, pg 14

So this morning, as the temperature fell to approximately 5 degrees C, I am able to sit in the sunshine without heating and generate electricity. Go figure whats better for you, control over your own electricity use and generation or leave that up to business interests.