Solar makes a valuable contribution to Australia’s renewable energy supply

Solar panels are one of six clean technologies Australia can rollout to cut our emissions by 81% by 2030.

Solar with thermal storage offers a stable supply of power throughout the day and night

PV panels use photovoltaic technology to convert sunlight into electricity. Solar systems can be installed on the ground, wall or rooftop, and may be fixed or use a solar tracker to follow the sun across the sky. They are scalable to the power needs of a home, business, factory or powerplant.

Reasons to love solar panels

  • Cost effective electricity generation
  • Minimal maintenance
  • Zero emissions energy
The cost of solar, wind and batteries continues to drop because of efficiency gains, economies of scale, wider public acceptance, more product variety and increasing capacity. This is demonstrated by the rapid uptake and price decrease of solar panels, with uptake growing 18 fold from 2010 to 2020 as costs dropped 80%.

The opportunity for solar panels in Australia

Our five-year Deploy plan is ambitious and achievable. One-hundred percent renewable generation and storage is the foundation for success.

By deploying 64 GW of renewable capacity and 13GW (67 GWh) of energy storage capacity Australia can reach 84% renewable energy generation within five years.

This equates to about 6,000 wind turbines and 66 million solar panels - or about 7.7 million domestic and 2.2 million commercial solar panels per year.

Many Australians are already taking advantage of solar panels - so the rollout of domestic solar panels needs to increase by less than double.

Solar panels: Made in Australia

Tindo Solar's new 150 MW state-of-the-art factory at Mawson Lakes in South Australia employs 80 people, creating panels for households, commercial buildings, and solar farms. Their ‘Tindo Karra’ series is a range of high-efficiency rooftop panels designed for residential and commercial use.

All panels are built using the new global M10cell technology. Tindo Solar’s Karra panels have a 25-year product warranty and an end-of-life recycling guarantee through a partnership with Reclaim PV. At the time of writing, Tindo Solar is Australia’s only solar panel manufacturing facility, founded in 2011.

Discover more companies leading innovation in solar technology.

The five-year Deploy plan

Increase in rollout rates for six key technologies to achieve the five-year Deploy plan

Solar panels are one of six technologies - alongside batteries, wind pumps, wind turbines, electric vehicles and electrolysers - Australian households, industry and transport can rollout to do the heavy lifting in reducing our emissions by 81% by 2030.

Our Deploy plan shows, in the next five years, we need to install clean technology at a rate of about two units or appliances per household. The good news is, we already know how to make these key technologies  – we just need to make more of them and put them to work.

Mass deployment of emission reducing technologies like solar panels can create jobs, reduce energy costs, revitalise manufacturing in our regions and urban centres, and help stimulate a green export industry triple the size of our current fossil fuel exports.