Australians Promised Free Solar Electricity
- Editor OGN Daily
- 20 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Australia is a sunny place. It’s the sunniest continent, and the sunniest country outside of the Middle East/Africa, and is producing so much solar power that it’s going to start giving it away to its citizens during the day.
According to official data, roughly 4 million households in Australia - almost a half of all homes - have rooftop solar arrays, which collectively generate more electricity than the country’s coal-fired power stations. Often, more electricity is produced than needed.
Now, under the government’s ‘solar sharer’ plan, energy companies will be forced to offer free electricity to customers (even those without solar panels) for three hours in the middle of the day. The scheme will enable renters and people who live in flats to benefit from the solar revolution, while de-incentivising electricity use at night, when coal and gas kick in to provide most of the electricity.
Citizens could, therefore, fill up a home battery during the day, and then use that electricity during peak hours when rates are higher. And this plan will help to incentivize private installation of batteries, or other shiftable loads, says Electrek. The overall effect of this is that it will help to iron out electricity use, making it track more closely with electricity supply, reducing the need for grid upgrades to manage swings in generation. Just turning on this simple behavioural switch, and then publicizing it so customers know to use electricity in the free hours, will both help the grid and help ratepayers save money.
“We want to see the benefits of renewable energy flow to all, even those without solar panels and batteries,” said energy minister Chris Bowen. Furthermore, Tim Buckley, director of the think-tank Climate Energy Finance, told the Financial Times that the plan “guts coal even faster and makes gas less relevant”.
Astonishing Speed of New Solar Capacity: A decade ago, it took the world a year to add a gigawatt of solar power capacity - now it only takes a day.