Small-scale renewable energy installation capacity hits 6000 MW

The small-scale renewable energy installation capacity in Australia has reached 6000 MW with around 2.8 million installations, according to the Clean Energy Regulator.

Queensland is leading the charge, with the largest uptake of systems under the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme.

Clean Energy Regulator Executive General Manager Mark Williamson said these installations now have the capacity to generate or displace approximately 11.2 million megawatt hours of electricity each year.

“More than one in five Australian households now have solar panels installed on their roof, and that’s the highest rate per capita in the world,” Williamson said.

“We’ve also recorded a trend in larger systems being installed over the past few years, with the average capacity of a system increasing by 12% from 2015 to 2016.”

The Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme provides incentives to households and businesses by issuing small-scale technology certificates for every megawatt hour of renewable energy generated or displaced by an accredited solar panel, wind or hydro system, solar water heater or air source heat pump.

Small-scale systems include capacity of up to 100 kW, or about 20 times the size of the average household system.