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https://theconversation.com/as-australias-net-zero-transition-threatens-to-stall-rooftop-solar-could-help-provide-the-power-we-need-220050>
"Australia is not rolling out clean energy projects nearly fast enough to reach
the Australian government’s target of 82% renewable electricity by 2030. A huge
build of solar and wind farms, transmission lines and big batteries is needed.
But progress is challenged by the scale required, community resistance to new
infrastructure and connecting all that new renewable electricity to the grid.
In the latest obstacle to expanding renewable energy capacity in the longer
term, federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek knocked back a plan by the
Victorian government to build a sea terminal to service offshore wind farms,
saying it posed “clearly unacceptable” environmental risks.
The roadblocks facing large projects present an opportunity to ramp up the
contribution of small-scale technologies in the energy transition. Recently,
federal and state energy ministers agreed on the need for a national roadmap
and a co-ordinated approach to integrating into the grid what they call
“consumer energy resources” (CER), which include batteries, electric vehicles
and rooftop solar.
More than one in three Australian houses have solar panels on their roofs.
Australia leads the world in rooftop solar per head. During the past year these
systems generated close to 10% of our electricity. Several times over the past
few months, they even provided enough electricity to briefly meet all South
Australia’s electricity demand.
And the technology still has great potential to grow: although installed
capacity has doubled in the last four years, these systems cover only about 10%
of Australia’s estimated usable roof area. So, how large a share of our
electricity needs might rooftop solar provide? The answers are not simple."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
