Already a subscriber?Over the past 20 years, Australians have fallen in love with solar – it’s the cheapest form of electricity generation in history and the keystone to this country’s future energy supply.
Other countries have tried, many haven’t succeeded. China is already doing it well and has succeeded in dominating the market globally and massively reducing the cost of solar over the past decade.The scale at which solar needs to be deployed means that we cannot rely solely on importing cheap solar panels from overseas.
Today we’re deploying around five gigawatts of solar on our roofs and on our land each year. It’s not far-fetched to think we could be deploying 10 times this much on an annual basis to deliver on our superpower ambitions.Developing a local solar manufacturing industry can mean facilitating closer trading relationships with both China and the US.
Combining the benefits of strong and diverse international supply with a strong and sustainable local manufacturing sector helps build resilience to supply chain disruptions and keep up Australia’s momentum in deploying huge amounts of solar. We can capitalise on our huge renewable electricity potential, our high ESG standards, trusted relationships with overseas markets, our existing export credentials and infrastructure, as well as our abundant access to the raw materials that go into making solar panels such as quartz, bauxite, silver and copper.