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About Us > Current Market, Trends, Demand

Current Market, Trends, Demand
  • There is growing market demand for sustainable renewable energy in Australia.
  • There are over 200 competing solar companies all vying for a slice of the market. They vary in their product and service offerings ranging from poor quality, low efficient panels and systems right through to the top of the range, high quality 240 watt panels that GRG provides the market with.
  • Only 50,000 households have installed Solar PV Systems to their roofs so there is scope for continued exponential growth in Australia.
  • Many home and business electricity customers have endured substantial price increases already this year - and it appears to be only the beginning with all energy companies planning to increase household power bills again next year (to date we have had price major increases July 09, July 10, planned July 2011).

Energy Prices Will Keep Rising

These are not simple times to be involved in energy supply, either for business or governments.
Australia's electricity generation is projected to grow by nearly 50 per cent between now and 2030 to meet growth in demand. Read More...

The reasons for the energy bill increases?
  • Ageing infrastructure that needs replacing
  • Compliance with greenhouse gas reduction schemes
  • Programs to help support low income earners.
As the age of cheap fossil-fuel sourced electricity draws to a close, households are increasingly turning to renewable energy sources such as solar power systems to not only play a role in reducing household carbon emissions, but to minimise the impact of increasing electricity costs.

Generous solar rebates currently available mean households can install a system for just a few thousand dollars and in some instances, solar energy enabled homes actually make money for system owners through feed in tariff schemes.

Future Projection
  • Future infrastructure will include a significant proportion of renewable energy reaching 40-50% by 2050. Solar is the fastest growing renewable energy source amongst Wind, Geothermal, Hydropower & Bio-fuel.
  • Solar PV panel production has doubled every 2 years since 2002. Investment volume grew to $50 Billion USD in 2007-2008. New installations primed to increase nearly five-fold from 2008 to 2013 reaching $100 Billion USD globally.
  • Northern & Western Europe has been the early adopters of solar PV technologies. Australia, USA, Middle East, China, India, Japan, Southern and Eastern Europe are showing tremendous growth potential. e.g.
    • China - 1 GW by 2011
    • India - 20 GW by 2022
    • Australia - 25 GW by 2025


Solar PV market - Characteristics

Trend Comments
Global growth
  • From Europe's green & clean tech revolution, the whole world is following
  • Solar power seen as key contributor towards international emission reductions and climate change management
  • PV production has been doubling every 2 years, increasing by an average of 48% p.a. since 2002, making it the world's fastest-growing clean technology
Australian PV market growing and heaving supported
  • The Australian Federal and State Governments are providing major support and encourage the use of solar power by the introduction of various stimulus packages
  • Australia is at the early stage of an explosive growth phase in solar PV systems
Australian incentive schemes are highly attractive
  • Households and small business owners' rebates include the redemption of RECS (Renewable Energy Certificates) with value around $35 per REC which translates to a point of sale cash discount of $4,740 for a 1.68KW system up to $9,930 for a 10 KW system.
  • Residents are entitled to receive Feed-In-Tariff, with incentives varying from state to state
  • All new houses and apartments built in Australia must meet an Energy Efficiency Rating, which is assisted by installing PV systems
Lack of integration in industry causes inefficiencies
  • Solar panel manufactories world-wide produce solar panels and solar panels only
  • Meanwhile, solar parts manufactories produce solar parts independently to the solar panel manufactories
  • There is no systemized and streamline solar PV systems manufactured at a single point of unity which leads to hundreds to thousands of combinations of solar PV systems consists of different parts made from different manufactories each with their own technical specification, quality and standards.
  • There is much incompatibility between solar panels and cables, connectors, frames and inverter capability
  • Delays are caused from order time to installation due to lead times, part bottlenecks and part incompatibility
Production China based, R&D Australia based
  • Subsequent to Global Financial Crisis, the solar manufacturing centre shifted to China. Today, over 80% of the world solar products are manufactured in China. In Australia, BP Solar, the only solar panel manufacturer, shut down its solar operation in 2008
  • However, Australia remains to be the R&D centre and the industry is continuously empowered by Australian innovations
Market players
  • Relatively young and inexperienced market, with many smaller players
  • Lack of universal standards causes inefficiencies in product offering
Supply constraints cause prevalence of lower quality offerings
  • Due to the shortage of supply by credible manufacturers, high quality products are sought after and often inaccessible, resulting in price escalation
  • Consequent to this, low-quality substandard products flood into the market to fill in the gap
Products are affected
  • Almost all the solar installation companies in Australia supply entry level solar panels ranging from 165 watt - 210 watt per panel to their customers
  • Perpetual Solar deems to become the industrial leader and supplies state-of-the-art solar panels with 240 watt per panel