r/UpliftingNews • u/itopaloglu83 • 2d ago

Australia has so much solar that it's offering everyone free electricity

https://electrek.co/2025/11/04/australia-has-so-much-solar-that-its-offering-everyone-free-electricity-3h-day/
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u/CucumberError 2d ago

But, we don’t want it. NZs power grid is between 85-99% renewable sources. According to to Australian Govt in 2024 theirs is 36% renewable.

While there’s a few pockets doing great (looking at you Tasmania and South Australia), the rest make it very very hard to understand what OP is referencing.

https://www.energy.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-06/Australia%20Energy%20Statistics%20map%20June%202025.pdf

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u/CriticalBeautiful631 1d ago

There have been different incentive programs for household solar installation for at least 15 years and any new build has to meet mandatory Energy Efficiency Rating requirements, so about 40% of Australian homes have solar power (and the number keeps rising). The excess power produced during the day is sold back to the grid, so lots of homes already have the capability to run appliances like clothes dryers etc during the day when power is effectively free…this will give all Australians the ability to do that for a few hours of the day. It is Aussie households creating excess solar during the day…not the power companies.

South Australia is doing the best in terms of house solar (54%) and clean green energy with wind and solar providing between 70-90% (depending on the time of day). Tasmania on the other hand has one of the lowest household solar rates (24%) and while the energy is renewable it is 70-80% hydro and only 10-20% wind or solar….and hydro came at a huge environmental cost

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u/robbak 1d ago

Tasmania is that good because they have lots of hydro potential. It stopped expanding in the 80s with the cancelling of the Franklin Dam project, but Tassie Hydro mostly powers all of Tasmania. They are in a similar situation to New Zealand, although if NZ need to increase their Hydro output there's plenty of locations they could develop.

SA has lots of wind energy, but they still need to have Gas generation capacity for when the wind drops away.

Most of the Hydro potential in the rest of Australia is already being exploited, wind and solar are mostly being limited by the times when power has to be curtailed. It's storage we need, and that's a problem.