Solar power is headed for a big year in Australia in 2017 as the boom in the large-scale market and a home solar and storage market is expected to grow further.
The Climate Council State of Solar 2016 confirmed solar is now the cheapest form of new large-scale power generation, as costs of the technology tumble and investment soar. According to the report, solar costs have gone down by 58% in just 5 years and look set to continue to fall by somewhere between 40-70% by the year 2040.
At present, solar plants are delivering electricity for cheaper than new coal, gas or nuclear at prices of around $110/megawatt-hours, which is expected to go down further over time. Also, the government is also surging with 20 projects that will come online this year and another 3700 megawatts in the pipeline.
The Climate Council predicts Australia will surpass 20 gigawatts of solar PV in the next 20 years. This is equivalent to about 1/3 of Australia’s current total power generation capacity.