Solar Suburbs Bust Rich Myth

There's a widely believed myth that solar is for rich city dwellers, but recent studies have shown regional households and families with mortgages in the outer metropolitan to be the biggest contributors of solar growth in Australia. These 'solar suburbs', revealed under The Geographical Analysis of Solar Systems under the Renewable Energy Target, confirm two things: rising power prices are driving us to switch to cleaner energy, and we have plenty of sun in the country. Plenty. Solar installations make up 53% of rural and regional communities whilst major capital cities make up 43%. To close this gap and encourage the number of solar suburbs we need a clearer vision of a clean energy Australia. One that is shared amongst energy consumers, providers, financiers and governments. There needs to be more awareness of the RET scheme, more general discourse about the environmental and cost benefits of solar power, and it all needs to be streamlined. Currently households, small businesses and community groups are able to access the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) designed to help with the upfront cost of installing small scale renewable energy systems. The definition of how this actually works, though, is technical and confusing, off-putting the incentive of the SRES and discouraging potential individuals looking to move to renewable energy. On top of this, there is (yet another) myth that the SRES cost of abatement is lower than gas-fired power due to data that is out of date. The Australian government aims to ensure that by 2020 at least 20% of our energy comes from renewable sources. Though we are on our way to this cleaner energy future, we'll get there a lot faster if we are more aware and less misinformed. If schemes were better, and more widely, communicated to the public, rather than being cased in technical jargon. We're already looking for alternatives to traditional, finite sources of energy. All we need is a little convincing. Find out more information about solar power here.