Australia's Solar Electricity Has Dropped Below Grid Parity

On 30th November 2012, I talked about German grid-connected solar PV installed cost has dropped to RM6.40 per watt, which was half of Malaysia installed cost. Now, another country also reported that its solar electricity generation cost is half the cost of grid power. 

The average installed cost of rooftop PV for Australia households has dropped to US$2.19 per watt (~ RM6.70 per watt). As most Australians who own a roof can currently borrow money at around 7% or less, this means the cost of electricity from rooftop solar for typical Australian is now about 12 cents (about 37 Malaysian cents) a kilowatt-hour, which is less than half the average cost of grid electricity in Australia.

Of course, thanks to Renewable Energy Certificates, Australian households don’t pay the full cost of their solar systems. Most installation will save about 68 cents a watt. Without this subsidy, the installed cost would be US$2.87 per watt. This makes the full production cost of solar electricity about 15 cents (45 Malaysian cents) per kilowatt-hour, which is still close to half what Australians pay for grid electricity.

In Malaysia, we are still looking at more than 70 Malaysian cents per kilowatt-hour for solar electricity. Hopefully, we the launch of solar FiT scheme, Malaysia solar installed cost could quickly reduce to the level of Germany and Australia. By then, the nation could rely less on fossil fuels by switching to solar energy.

For more info please visit: http://cleantechnica.com/2013/01/07/solar-electricity-now-under-half-the-cost-of-grid-power-for-australian-households/