16 January 2006The Sydney Morning Herald
Sunny energy ... Bob Crooks with some of the 54 solar panels mounted on the roof of his home in Northbridge. Photo: Adam Hollingworth
On sweltering summer afternoons Marie dela Russo enjoys nothing more than cranking up the air-conditioning, then dashing outside to watch the electricity meter spinning - backwards.
It's three weeks since six photo-voltaic solar panels were installed on the roof of her family home in Lidcombe and connected to Sydney's power grid. She's ecstatic; they were up and running just in time for the record 44-degrees New Year's Day and were pumping electricity back into the city's strained network even with three air-conditioners running. When the meter is turning backwards it's generating credits on her future power bills.
The 26-year researcher says she isn't "a committed greenie, just a pragmatic, practical woman".
While delegates to the inaugural meeting of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate were rubbing their foreheads in Sydney last week, not everyone was waiting for the Government's lead on climate change. At ground level, individuals are finding personal solutions.
"We are doing home renovations and extensions, and we are going to invest so much in our house, I thought we should invest in free power too," dela Russo says.
But she also concedes she feels great instead of guilty using so much power to cool down the stuffy, weatherboard cottage. And nowadays, when she stares out of the train window on her way to work she doesn't just see the same blank expanse of baking surburban rooftops, she sees wasted opportunities for solar power.
Bob Crooks covered much of the roof of his Northbridge home with photo-voltaic panels three years ago because, he says: "The sun is there and it's free - if you are prepared to make the initial outlay. But I was also making a bit of a statement. I wanted to reduce my own contribution to greenhouse gases."
Last year was Australia's hottest on record and summer peak power demands now exceed winter peaks, mainly because of the consumer stampede towards residential air-conditioning. More than 60 per cent of Australian dwellings are now air-conditioned, compared with 33 per cent in 1994. And last month was Australia's sunniest on record; an average of 10.4 cloud-free hours of sun a day were recorded in December.
But for the 900,000 or so air-conditioners bought a year only 1300 or so homeowners Australia-wide invest in photo-voltaic systems. Australia has about 30,000 solar buildings, in the main in remote areas with no access to the power grid, and most solar use is for hot water, now installed in about 4 per cent of homes.
Solar power seems like a logical power solution, especially for western Sydney where hectares upon hectares of rooftops could be turned into mini-power generators.
Since 1950 Sydney's population has doubled, but its power consumption has increased 12-fold, pushing the grid close to collapse, especially on summer afternoons when the air-conditioners all kick in at once.
Australia's overwhelming reliance on coal-fired power stations means growing electricity demand is translating directly into increasing greenhouse gas emissions, a fact clearly laid out in the tonnes of CO2 per household on the back of power bills.
Grid-connected solar systems mean homeowners can effectively sell their power by (sunny) day and buy it back at night, cutting electricity bills or doing away with them altogether and reducing or erasing their own environmental footprint.
But there are two decisive, connected issues - price and community attitudes.
For a basic one-kilowatt start-up system, the dela Russos paid more than $14,000, and received a rebate of about $3700 through the Australian Greenhouse Office. That's only enough extra power to cut their bill by 30 or 40 per cent. Crooks paid more than $40,000 for a much larger system capable of producing all his electricity, but qualified for almost $14,000 in subsidies before rebates were reduced in 2003.
Australia's electricity is among the cheapest in the world and NSW enjoys some of the cheapest power in Australia. This means solar grid-connect systems won't realistically pay for themselves for decades.
Most Australians are simply unwilling to invest their money in reducing greenhouse emissions. A recent survey by the Australian Bureau of Statistics found energy consumption patterns were driven by lifestyles and resources availability, "not a desire to reduce energy use".
Of the 23 per cent of Australian householders who like the idea of "green power", less than half are prepared to spend more than $100 extra a year to support it.
"Solar power is technically proven and reliable, but compared to coal-fired power generation it's expensive. This is the real challenge for the industry," says Ric Brazzale, executive director of the Australian Business Council for Sustainable Energy.
"We're fantastic at remote solar power for the bush. But we are rapidly falling behind countries like Germany, Spain, Japan, and even the United States, which are aggressively putting renewable power into cities."
Solar, he says, won't be competitive until installation prices for homes are down to about $5000 for a basic one-kilowatt system. But, to simply pit solar against coal-fired power prices, he argues, is not a fair comparison. The more rooftops that are covered with photo-voltaic cells the less power companies need to spend on upgrading transmission systems lines and new peak-load power stations.
Australian power providers will spend $14 billion to meet increased demand over the next five years. And, as fossil fuels are depleted and huge investments in cleaner technology become mandatory, coal-fired power prices must increase; making solar cheaper.
"Right now, solar users aren't being rewarded for their contribution to the power infrastructure or for their contribution to avoiding greenhouse gases," Brazzale says.
But it's a catch-22 because installation prices will only come down with economies of scale. Demand in NSW needs to somehow double to push prices down. In South Australia, higher power prices have triggered higher demand for solar energy, and costs are about $2000 lower than in NSW. The world's two largest solar power users are Japan and Germany, where electricity prices are relatively high.
Germany, despite its less than optimum climatic conditions, has more homes powered by solar cells than anywhere else in the world. The main reason is government policy. Cheap loans are available for solar installations, and power companies are obliged to buy solar power going back into the grid at a premium price, meaning the initial outlay for solar panels can be earned back much faster.
In Australia, solar rebates have been progressively cut back since 2000 and are now capped at $4000 a dwelling, despite the Federal Government's recent commitment to build at least four solar cities in urban areas.
But at a Sydney solar installer, Australia-wide Solar, staff are rushed off their feet with inquiries. They're at the coalface of confused energy-conscious consumers and cautious investors who want a lot of information before making a decision.
"The interest is not just because of the recent hot weather," says marketing manager Jill Harrison. "People know it's going to take them a very long time to get their money back in savings on their bills, but there are more environmentally conscious people out there than you think."
Chris Hart, from the Adelaide-based Ecosouth Solar, says many of his customers are retirees who want to spend their money on something useful. The largest system he has ever sold was to an 85-year-old man. "He doesn't need that much power and he can't possibly live long enough to see the economic benefits, but he wanted to do something and he wanted everyone to see him doing it," Hart says.
He says other buyers are mainly younger baby boomers prepared to sacrifice on lifestyle spending to fund solar power, and households in remote areas. A stand-alone solar power system requires expensive storage batteries for night or cloudy days and costs at least $40,000.
Dela Russo's friends and neighbours are divided over her new panels. "There's some who think we are mad for spending so much money. Some are very impressed. But it's going to take a lot more than me showing off my solar panels. We have to have a proper debate about electricity prices and about rebates. When you buy solar panels you are setting up your own little power station, you are building part of the electricity infrastructure with your own money. That should be recognised."
THE HOT FACTS
· Solar-powered dwellings in Australia, about 30,000. Dwellings with solar hot water; about 350,000. · New solar photo-voltaic connections a year, about 1300. · Basic start-up package for rooftop solar; about $11,000 (with up to $4000 rebate) · Air-conditioners in Australian homes: 6 million. · Annual sales of air-conditioners in Australia, 900,000. · Air-conditioned homes in Australia: 2005, 60 per cent, 1994, 33 per cent.
