Australia has launched a plan to force energy companies to offer free electricity to households during the day, aiming to use excess solar capacity and rebalance the grid away from coal and gas.
The intervention is an attempt by Australia’s government to take advantage of the country’s extensive network of rooftop solar panels. More than 4mn of Australia’s 10.9mn households have such panels, and capacity has overtaken the combined output of the country’s residual coal-fired power stations, according to official data.
That has driven daytime power pricing — when solar supply is strongest — at times into negative territory, as solar-enabled households produce more energy than needed.