Solar energy gathering momentum

With the Albanese government anointing Greg Combet to chair the Net Zero Economy Agency (as had been expected for months), it’s worth a quick look at what the prospects are for reaching such a goal.

Overnight, the Climate Energy Finance group has released an interesting report about the gathering momentum in the solar energy field. And frankly, the revolution looks like it’s only just getting started:

Related: Australia set for cheaper solar power as supply of panels soars, says report

The scale of some of the solar panel production that is coming, particularly from China, is remarkable, and a cause for optimism, says Renate Egan, who heads the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics at UNSW.

The world installed a record 268 gigawatts of solar panels last year and that tally is heading to 1000GW by 2030. “This would have profound implications for electricity and energy markets globally,” the report said.

A couple of interesting facts include tiny Netherlands vies with Australia as among the top 10 for annual installations at 3.9GW of solar. (The Dutch occupy 1/186 our land area, so one of us is exceptional).

Another is that Australia has about 30GW of solar PV all up, which sounds a lot. However, one single Chinese company, JinkoSolar, last month announced plans for a US$7.9bn (A$11.7bn) wafer-to-module solar factory in the coal-rich Chinese province of Shanxi that alone will churn out as much as 56GW solar energy capacity a year.

The biggest US plant – now being built with support from the Biden administration – by contrast is only about 3GW a year.

Anyway, the race is on, and we should encourage even more speed and ambition if net zero is to be a realistic possibility.

© Provided by The Guardian South Keswick Solar Farm at Dubbo, NSW. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian