If you live in Australia and have been waiting for the right time to invest in solar power for your home, information from this post by Ronald Brakels over at Cleantechnica may convince you it’s about time. Last month, the average installed cost of rooftop solar for households was $2.19 US per watt. In addition, most homeowners can currently borrow money at 7% or less, which means the cost of power from rooftop solar for a typical home is about 12 cents per kilowatt-hour. This is less than half the average grid electricity cost in Australia.
Thanks to Renewable Energy Certificates, Australian households don’t pay the full cost of solar systems. The savings differ according to location, with most people saving about 68 cents a watt. If the solar cost stays about the same as last month, the total, including the 10% Goods and Services tax, comes in at about $2.87 per watt. The full cost of electricity produced is about 15 cents per kilowatt-hour, about half the price of grid electricity.
Extra Renewable Energy Certificates used to be distributed for rooftop solar projects, but that program ended earlier than expected, so now solar only receives the same as all other renewable energy projects. This may cause prices to go up a bit, but the solar industry may end up absorbing the cost rather than making customers deal with it. Solar panels are expected to continue coming down in price.
This all means that Australia will likely see a further boost in the already strong growth in solar installations. In other news, I am more than ready to move to Australia. Who’s with me?
Image CC licensed by Michael Coghlan
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