Australians have now installed more than two million small-scale renewable energy systems, the Clean Energy Regulator has confirmed. This was composed of 1,161,245 solar photovoltaic systems, 669,281 solar hot water units and 173,101 heat pump water heaters as well as a small number of micro hydro and small wind turbines.

The regulator said that small-scale systems, assisted by falling system costs and coupled with financial incentives derived from the Renewable Energy Target, had become “more and more affordable” for everyday Australians “This comes only eight months after reaching one million rooftop solar photovoltaic installations, providing a strong indication that investment in small-scale renewable energy continues to flourish in Australia,” the regulator said.

The regulator estimates the two million small-scale installations have a capacity to generate or displace approximately 6882 gigawatt hours of electricity annually, with 4182 gigawatt hours generated from small-scale solar, wind and hydro installations and a further 2700 gigawatt hours displaced by solar hot water systems and air source heat pumps.

This equates to the amount of electricity required to power approximately 1.04 million Australian homes for a year, the CER said, enough to power all Perth, Hobart, Darwin and Canberra households combined.

This article was written by and first published in Business Spectator

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