The productivity of solar installations in Australia passed 10 gigawatts in September, according to the Australian Photovoltaic Institute.
The institute says that Australia now has 10.1GW of installed solar, which is capable of delivering 14.6 terawatt hours, and meeting more than 5.5pc of the country’s energy demand.
It has said the record-breaking new solar capacity is mainly due to the registration of two large new solar farms in September: the 180MW Daydream Solar Farm in north Queensland, and the 188MW Coleambally Solar Farm in NSW.
“Every gigawatt of solar involves installing and connecting more than three million solar panels. This creates more than 1000 full-time jobs a year, and a further 30-100 ongoing positions are created in operations and maintenance,” according to the institute’s chairperson, Renate Egan, an associate professor in the Uni of NSW.
“With 1.95 million installations to date and more than 15,000 new ones each month, Australia is on track to break through two million solar installations by the end of the year.”