Australia’s renewable energy industry is heading into a more promising and lucrative future with solar power and residential energy storage at centre stage.

Recent reports and statistics revealed that more households, even low income homes and regional communities are gearing for a more sustainable future as evidenced by the current surge in solar installation demands.

The number one most visited cleantech-focused website in the world, Cleantechnica reported that,

“Rooftop solar is the core of Australia’s drive to deliver cheap electricity. In short, as the country forwards to a more sustainable future, it has primed its households to store energy harnessed from sustainable sun energy in a manner that only a few other nations are doing. This is just a matter of introducing the right technology for the energy storage which will set-off the industry,”.

Solar power the future of energy

Solar energy continues to deliver good reports as more countries across the globe show positive feedback in its effect to both the economy and the environment.

With solar photovoltaic panels progressively becoming cheaper and eco-friendly, solar power is deemed to be the future’s primary energy source.

Generating the least amount of environmental impact while generating the utmost decline in greenhouse effect, energy sourced from the sun’s heat will continue to be a cultivating and promising future for the country and the rest of the world.

Affordability, however, remains an issue as initial installation still retains its costs. Similarly, batteries, inverters and power-conversion devices essential for the PV systems to connect to the grid are still as pricey.

By 2018, an ambitious yet do-able future is seen by the renewable energy market.

According to the Renewable Energy World forecast, in three years the residential photovoltaic solar installations integration to the grid as well as to residential energy storage systems is slated at 900 megawatts.

Sam Wilkinson, research manager for IHS’ energy storage said, “The outlook for PV in various residential solar markets integrated with energy storage has declined considerably in the past year or so. This is largely due to a reduction in government incentives,”.

“We particularly presented a four-year forecast, from 2014-2017, showing a 50 per cent reduction in total residential installations across three of the largest PV markets, namely, Germany, Italy and the UK,” he further added.

In this particular IHS report, a projection on Japan’s emerging PV energy storage market has also shown a lot of promises especially its 200 megawatt installations.

This is something that Australia should consider, as with its current market trend and environmental capabilities, this emerging market can create a lot of positive changes.

Recent reports revealed that as of March 2015, it has utilized an estimated 4,100 megawatt of solar energy from PV installations, just a small percentage of the country’s overall electricity energy requirement.

However, the data also revealed that solar power in the country presented a 10-fold increase in two years.

With the G20 pushing for more ventures and investments in the drive for a cleaner energy investment to beef up its $300 billion venture, the Australian solar power system is also predicted to be in its top form as new battery technology and government policies develop.

Photo courtesy of Olearys