When I was visiting
Adelaide, just after Christmas, I was pleased to see how many homes had
installed solar panels on their roofs. Yes, I am back on the roof again. It had
been 18 months since I was last in Adelaide, and the change was astonishing. I
would estimate that up to one in three homes had panels, at least in the area
where I was staying. Coming back up here to sunny
far north Queensland, the proportion is much lower.
It is great to see so
many Australians (particularly in the south) embracing the solar alternative.
Of course, the motivation for this is largely financial, rather than
environmental. Now that solar panels have become less expensive, it is possible
to make a fairly quick return on your investment, particularly with power
companies paying for energy fed back into the grid. It has always been my
belief (or, at least, my hope) that the conflict between economics and green
policies would prove to be a furphy in the medium to long term. (I probably
need another aside here to explain that “furphy” is an Australian slang term
for an exaggerated story, a false report or a rumour.) The use of solar panels is hopefully
an early example of this.
My hope is that it will soon be compulsory for all new
buildings, be they private homes or otherwise, to include solar panels during
construction. This would represent a fairly small impost in the context of any
building project.
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