The 1,805MW of solar PV capacity on the rooftops of Queensland homes and business now amount to be the biggest power station by capacity in the state, overtaking the 1,780MW of the Gladstone coal fired power station.
Now, they get around 6c/kWh (some smaller retailers offer 10c/kWh) for their exports back to the grid, but the falling costs of rooftop solar, the prospect of competitive battery storage, and the soaring costs of grid power appear to be driving another solar boom.
The likely passing of the milestone was flagged last month by energy minister Mark Bailey, who told a battery storage conference in Brisbane that:
“The combined solar rooftops are now the second largest power generator, just behind the 1680 MW Gladstone Power Station – which emits approximately 11.8 million tonnes of greenhouse gas each year, versus zero from the sun and our second biggest generator.
Queensland is not actually the only state or territory where rooftop solar is the biggest power station. In the ACT, there is 59MW of rooftop solar, but the only competition within the boundaries of the ACT is the 20MW Royalla large-scale solar farm.
There are no gas or coal-fired generators within the boundaries of the national capital, and the ACT is now well on its way to sourcing the equivalent of 100 per cent of its electricity needs from renewable energy by 2020, after contracting a series of new solar and wind farms across South Australia, Victoria and NSW.
In Western Australia, there is 696MW of rooftop solar, but it falls short of the 854MW of the ageing Muja power station, while in South Australia there is 722MW of rooftop solar, still well short of the Torrens Island gas fired generator of 1280MW, although half of that capacity comes from the Torrens Island A, which is 50 years old and tipped for retirement some time soon.
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of One Step Off The Grid, and also edits and founded Renew Economy and The Driven. He has been a journalist for 35 years and is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review.
This post was published on April 12, 2017 10:19 am
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One reason the FIT is so low is that the power distributors don't really want our energy, especially when it is generated at a time of low demand. And because of the low tariff, we think of ways to avoid selling our energy, such as using battery storage. But, what if an agreement could be reached with the distributors, such that they could draw on our stored energy when they needed to meet demand and pay a fair price for the privilege?
Diamond Energy with its Grid Credits program is doing exactly that.
http://diamondenergy.com.au/gridcredits100
Some of these commercial systems around the 100kW are being approved by Ergon/Energex for export, yet, Origin are refusing to pay the 0.06 cents to some of their clients who become PV system owners, like those that signed their 2 year contracts a year ago.
In qld , I am still on the Newman govt. 44c + 6 c from Origin till 2028 . Have not paid a bill since 2012 . I have a 3kw system and a 24 yr old Solar hart Hot water system . This year, I bought a new Panasonic camera FZ 300 with my solar income . By 2028 , battery tech will improve 50% and will be cheaper to buy .