The 12th March 2013 saw Australia’s one millionth rooftop solar power systems installed. SunWiz Consulting found that at the end of March 1 011 478 systems had been installed on residential and commercial rooftops across the nation.

The growth the solar power industry has seen in the last year or two has exceeded all expectations. Even through some uncertainty in the market due to Government changes, falling incentives and reducing feed-in tariffs, solar power has managed to soar. In 2006, there were fewer than 900 solar power system installed – now, Australia has over one million systems producing clean, green energy every day.

The Australia Bureau of Statistics shows that the number of people installing solar power rose from only 118 in 2001 to 85 550 in 2009 – it then increased to 639 803 in 2011.

Clean Energy Council Chief Executive, David Green said, “It is remarkable when you think that just five years ago in 2008 there were only about 20,000 systems installed across the entire country. For some years solar has been most enthusiastically embraced by those in mortgage-belt suburbs, retirement areas and regional parts of the country. People from all walks of life have been installing solar as a way of protecting themselves from power price pain over the long term.”

According to the SunWiz data, solar power in Australia has produced 2725 gigawatts of power as well as contributed to a fall in electricity demand. The graph shows the cumulative installations by State with Queensland out in front with over 300 000 solar power installations. NSW comes in second with almost 230 000. Around 2.5million people now live in a solar powered home – more than the entire population of Western Australia. The second graph shows the suburbs that have installed the most solar power as at 10th March 2013.

Mr Green said that solar power has not only offered people a way to reduce or eliminate their power bills but it has also aided the economy by employing 8000 people and leading to billions of dollars in investments. As well as reducing electricity demand, solar power has helped take pressure off the grid on days of extreme temperatures aiding it to cope at peak periods.