While protests against renewable energy projects have been rampant ahead of the federal election, Australia has quietly passed a major solar milestone - reaching 25GW of installed capacity and PV per capita, according to a report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. more than any other country in the world.
It's a huge achievement for a country that has been blamed for exporting large quantities of coal, with Australia also ranking first for the polluting fuel. For geographical and economic reasons, Australia will continue to maintain this duality of using more green energy at home while exporting polluting coal to the rest of the world.
Green energy, especially solar energy, is becoming a popular choice in Australia. Green energy costs less in this vast, sunny country. Still, coal exports are critical to maintaining domestic employment.
According to the Australian Photovoltaic Association, the latest achievement in total solar energy per capita comes in 2021. Australia's cumulative capacity has actually jumped to 26.9GW by early 2022. In a country of just under 26 million people, this achievement cannot be underestimated. By comparison, India would need more than 1,350GW of solar energy to achieve the same level of solar energy per capita.
Currently, India is about 50GW. Australia's rooftop solar penetration rate also leads the world, with a household utilization rate of more than 30%, and rooftop solar per capita is also in a leading position.
The milestone caps off a record year for solar in Australia in 2021, during which 5.2GW of PV was installed in Australia.
Despite the disruption caused by a second wave of Covid-19 and increasingly strong headwinds in the global solar market, rooftop installations in homes and businesses surpassed 3GW to a record 3.24GW.
Larger, large-scale ground-mounted solar power plants set a new record in December, generating more than 1,000 GWh of electricity for the first time that month, with a total of 1,263 GWh.
According to recent analysis by the Climate Commission, small and large-scale solar projects collectively met 13.3% of Australia's total electricity demand during the year. To maintain its energy export status in a post-fossil fuel world, Australia is also building some ambitious power export projects that will export green electricity, in addition to producing green hydrogen for re-export.