Australia’s rooftop solar surge challenges power grids

Low installation costs and generous feed-in tariffs help make Australia a world leader in rooftop solar panels

Rooftop solar is helping Australia—one of the latest countries to announce a net-zero target—to transition away from coal, but the technology’s rapid rise is posing a challenge for the resilience and stability of distribution grids, delegates heard at the Asia Clean Energy Summit in Singapore. In the 2010s, Australia’s energy industry focused primarily on transmission and large-scale solar and wind generation when it came to renewables. But this progress was quietly accompanied by a rapid acceleration in grid-connected solar as thousands of homeowners installed their own panels to reduce electricity bills and earn money from the grid. The low costs of installations, generous feed-in tariff s