How Rooftop Solar Cuts Everybody’s Power Bills

How rooftop solar is saving billions on energy bills for all consumers

Giles Parkinson, 16 October 2017 ReNew Economy)

“…[Without rooftop solar, the aggregate cost of electricity in the Australian state of New South Wales] would have been several billion dollars higher over the past year…[Impact of small solar PV on the NSW wholesale electricity market] reinforces previous estimates of the broad benefits of the more than 6GW of rooftop solar installed on more than 1.7 million household and business rooftops…That capacity is often demonised by vested interests as ‘free-loading’ on the network and other consumers, but the study proves otherwise…[In] NSW alone the savings from rooftop solar – by reducing demand at crucial times and challenging the dominance of the big generators in the wholesale market – were between $2.3 billion and $3.3 billion in the 12 months to April, 2017…That’s how much the wholesale price is lowered from what it would have been if rooftop solar was not present in the market. Even though rooftop solar only provides 2 per cent of total generation, the study found it clipped prices by $29-44/MWh – up to 50 per cent higher than the actual price…” click here for more

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