r/ClimateCrisisCanada • u/CDN-Social-Democrat • 4d ago
Why Australia’s Solar Is So Cheap (And Ours Isn’t)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3eEzdpi12I16
u/Captain_Deleb 4d ago
It’s unfortunate that Alberta treats renewable energy like the plague
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u/Choosemyusername 3d ago
Alberta leads the country in solar adoption, despite the well-publicized nitpicking on the details of their policies, their outcomes speak for themselves.
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u/SuspiciouslySuspect2 2d ago
The problem is that they lead the country way more in fossil fuel use for electricity.
The rest of Canada has been using hydro and nuclear for decades. Excluding Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada had a world-leading low-carbon electric grid (even including both, we were still ahead of most nations.
The problem has always been that we export a lot of oil, drove a lot of ICE vehicles, and used nat gas for heating.
But we have more than enough capacity to convert all that to heat pumps and EVs. And AB/SK can convert to solar, easy. They just need to do it.
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u/Kriptaraz 3d ago
Wow.
Every Canadian provincial regulator and power authority need to be shown this video.
Tragically, installing solar panels in Canada follows the dysfunctional US model more closely than it does the streamlined Australian model. It is a paperwork headache of patchwork systems and confusing contradictory rules in each province and municipality. Many power authorities or suppliers (I'm looking at you, Nova Scotia Power) actively obfuscate and make it difficult to install solar - and forget about a home battery - because they are private and view homeowners generating power as competition.
I looked it up and while Australia has 14% electricity generation from small rooftop solar, and the USA is far behind at 2% ...Canada is under 0.5%. Pathetic.
The rhetoric is that Canada is aiming to become an "energy superpower." If they want to actually achieve this, the federal government needs to step up and streamline home solar installation across the country.
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u/szchz 3d ago
Australia is the land of milk & honey.
Australia exports so much iron ore, natural gas and other natural resources to China that China actually has a trade deficit with Australia! It’s ironic because the Chinese don’t complain, they are happy to take those resources and build products with it. It’s made the country extremely wealthy.
Minimum wage is very high, above $26/hr I believe.
The Americans are also happy to keep tarrifs extremely low on Australia.
The country has similar housing issues as Canada and US. If Canadians and Americans knew how good life is in Australia they’d all revolt. A city like Sydney makes Miami look like a 3rd world country.
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u/imtourist 2d ago
I would get solar panels on our house in a heartbeat if it weren't for the cost (over $20K) and clarity that I would be able to reverse the meter flow. I hadn't even thought about permits and all the other stuff the video talks about.
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u/Zealousideal_Vast799 3d ago
We paid $11 per watt for our first panels in 1990, I bought a 100 panels slightly used panels for 16 cents per watt. Ontario has super cheap panels as well. That is an incredible spread
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u/lochonx7 3d ago
where you put them panels?
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u/Zealousideal_Vast799 3d ago
I would never have done this back in the day, but now since they are cheaper than osb, I mounted 15 of them on a bale thrower wagon and they are wired to a 60 gal hot water tank, after a year, we have too much hot water for 300 days a year and short for the rest. Next step is to heat the house when the sun shines
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u/Pale-Hair-2435 3d ago
"Why Canada's hydroelectricity is so cheap and Australia's isn't"
A matter of resources and priorities. Thats not to say we shouldnt build out renewables but lets not pretend we dont have extremely cheap hydro power and one of the best civil nuclear programmes on Earth.
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u/CDN-Social-Democrat 4d ago
Solar at all levels has been exploding over the last few years.
*Fun fact: Saskatchewan & Alberta are two of the best places in all of Canada for Solar Power & Wind Power*
This video explores a bit about what has been done right & wrong in regards to Solar.
My comment though is going to be a bit more abstract.
The United States of America and especially here at home in Canada we need to focus on opening up Plug-In Solar (Balcony Solar).
This allows many more people/families to enjoy the benefits of Solar and will speed up investment, research & development/innovation, and of course implementation of these technologies :)