The Future Outlook of Australia’s Power Sector in 2020

From Report Buyer: Australia’s solar energy resources are one of the best in the world with high levels of solar radiation and considerable land mass suitable for large-scale solar developments. And with more than 35% of Australia’s land mass having arid or semi-arid climate including around 20% deserts, solar radiation per square meter in Australia is higher than any other country.

These are the reasons why Australia is eyeing to tap these huge and inexhaustible resources in generating a substantial proportion of electricity so that it can improve its position from being one of the highest averages per person emitter of greenhouse gasses. Despite these comparative advantages, the share of the solar power-based electricity output in Australia still is half the OECD average.

The price of materials and installation, the challenges in storing solar energy and the need for substantial additional hardware and infrastructure are deterrent to the expansion of the industry. But the advances in solar technology and reduction in cost are likely to see the percentage of solar increase in the coming years.

Solar photovoltaic installations in Australia are categorised according to the size of PV-based generation systems:

1. Small-scale with system size maximum 100kW
2. Medium scale with system size between 100kW and 1MW
3. Large-scale with system size over 1MW

The small-scale installations lead Australia’s solar energy sector with installation capacity totaling to more than 500MW till June 2016, and then followed by approximately 300MW of large-scale solar PV projects and 8MW of medium scale solar PV systems.

Click here to read the full story and here for the full report on Report Buyer

Featured Image Credit: David Marsh