In the first of the Illawarra Flame's ‘Energy Explained’ series of conversations with energy expert Ty Christopher, the Director of the Energy Futures Network at the University of Wollongong answers a common question about electrifying your home.
Should I put solar panels on my home?
This question is very much a common ground for people who are concerned about their own carbon footprint and their own energy costs.
Overall, the biggest revolution that's ever occurred in the energy industry in Australia since its inception is the widespread uptake of solar on homes and businesses. That is by far and away the most transformational change and the most significant in a technical sense as well as an economic sense. There’s lots of bad dad jokes in this, but it’s a shifting of the power balance – consumers are taking control of their own energy supply.
Australia is leading the world with the uptake of solar on homes and businesses. We have more than a third, approaching 40% of homes with solar on them. We are connecting three gigawatts-plus of new solar onto the grid each and every year.
Now, human nature is such that, I don't for a minute believe that all of that is being done for altruistic reasons and out of people's passionate concern for the environment.
The reality is there's a significant component of that that is about people reacting reasonably and appropriately to the ever-increasing cost of energy supply and wanting to take control of that cost by using their roof – a tremendous asset if they have access to a roof – to generate their own power and have a positive impact on their electricity bills.
So, the answer to ‘Should I put solar on my home?’ is, like all of these things, it depends.
And the main thing it depends on is, are you able – in how you live your life in your home – to maximise the use of that beautiful clean energy from solar when it's being generated during the middle of the day?
If the answer is yes, you can do that, whether it's through setting appliance timers – and those sorts of things, running the dishwasher while you’re at work – or whether it's because you might work from home a couple of days a week, or you are able to phase your life so that you maximise what's called the self-consumption of that solar, then the compelling answer to the question, ‘should I put solar on my home?’ is absolutely yes, you should.
If you're going to rely on selling that solar energy into the grid and monetising that, then that has over the years and is increasingly going into territory where it's just not worth it.
So the key to having solar on your home and realising the benefits economically and environmentally is: use it when it's available.
And so it's a caveated yes to ‘should I put solar on my home?’
Ty Christopher, Endeavour Energy’s former ‘chief engineer’, is an electrical engineer who brings 37 years of hands-on experience in the power supply industry to his current role as Director of the Energy Futures Network at the University of Wollongong.
Read more Energy Explained articles
- Should you put rooftop solar on your home?
- The case for home and community batteries
- Electricity Regulation – Kicking goals or killing time before the bell?
- The hidden cost in your electricity bill
- Why restructuring the market may save you money
- Why should we 'Electrify Everything' – and why can't Wollongong run on sun?
- How much power can solar actually deliver?
