The capital of Western Australia, Perth is a thriving, modern city home to around 2.1 million people. While it may be one of the most isolated cities on Earth (Perth is closer to Jakarta, Indonesia than it is to Sydney), it’s one that is savvy to the benefits of installing solar panels.
Back in the mid-2000’s, Perth was chosen by the Australian Federal government as a test case “Solar City” to provide information to federal agencies on the renewable energy technology.
More recently, parts of Perth were utilised as a test bed for related technologies such as battery storage. Given Western Australia’s vast and varied battery metals resources, Perth may also become a hub of processing and manufacturing high-end solar battery materials and systems.
With its abundance of sun, Perth is well placed to harvest the near-exhaustible source of clean energy from the sun. In Perth, each kilowatt of solar panels you install can generate around 4.4 kilowatt hours of electricity a day on average; assuming your rooftop is suitable and good quality components are used by a professional installer. Simple payback on a 6.6kW PV system installation can be achieved in under 6 years.
Across Western Australia, there are now more than 438,000 solar power systems installed on residential rooftops; with many of these in the Perth area. Postcodes in the Perth metropolitan area regularly feature in the nation’s top ten for PV installation numbers and capacity.
One of the reasons solar power is so popular in Perth is the city enjoys the lowest system costs in Australia, thanks to intense competition.
Rooftop solar is the biggest power station in Western Australia (approximately 29% of homes have panels installed) and it’s predicted half of Perth’s households could have solar panels on their rooftops within the next couple of years.
The rise of solar energy systems in Perth has been meteoric considering WA had practically zero installations in 2008. The city’s passion for solar power is seeing many Perth households with systems not only slashing their carbon emissions, but exercising greater control over electricity costs.
Perth’s electricity prices began increasing again in 2017 and unlike other parts of Australia are predicted to continue on an upwards trend for some time. Submit for three quotes from Perth solar installers today and find out how harnessing the energy of the sun may benefit your household in providing a buffer against high power prices now and future electricity price hikes.