After a decade of toxic political debate around climate change, carbon pricing and energy policy, Australian consumers are increasingly taking control of their own power.

The proportion of solar customers in the National Energy Market (NEM) was fewer than 0.2 per cent in 2007-08.

Just 10 years later it's 12 per cent and rising.

Ten years ago 14,000 households had solar panels. Now it's 1.8 million — that's one in five.

People power

Renewable energy analyst Tristan Edis credits a surprising figure for the increase.

"I say [former prime minister] Tony Abbott was the best friend that the solar industry ever had because he injected so much fear into the electorate, some of it actually entirely misplaced, around rises in electricity prices," Mr Edis told The Business.

Tristan Edis says fear of soaring power bills instilled by politicians has driven the rapid uptake of solar. ( Supplied: Green Energy Markets )

Mr Edis, director of Green Energy Markets, said some of the highest uptake of solar panels has been in regional areas and outer suburban "mortgage belt" areas where bill increases hit hard.

"[Mr Abbott] filled people with so much fear about their electricity bills and didn't explain the real reasons for why their bills were going up," he said.

"He said it was the carbon price, before the carbon price was even in! So people, not really understanding what's going on, thought — 'what's the easiest thing for me to do? I'll take control and generate my own electricity'."

Big savings

The sun-kissed gold rush has fuelled such competition it's now cheaper to install solar panels on homes in Australia than almost anywhere in the world.

Trish Jannu works part-time for a not-for-profit organisation and installed solar panels six years ago when her inner-city Melbourne council offered a scheme that took the sting out of the up-front cost.

"For many years I wanted to have solar panels but I couldn't afford it. When I moved here to Coburg, Moreland Council offered a package whereby you could get the solar panels at a very moderate cost — and that included the installation — and I just jumped at the opportunity when it was offered," she said.

Solar customers pay $750 less annually, on average, for their power bills, a report from the nation's competition watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, found.

Customers with solar panels pay on average $750 less a year, according to the ACCC. ( Supplied: ACCC )

But renters made up more than 30 per cent of Australian households in the 2016 census, and they — along with apartment dwellers and poor people — are largely unable to enjoy that saving.

Average residential customer electricity bills have risen from $1,210 in 2007-08 to $1,636 in 2017-18.

Why has your power bill risen?

There are five parts to your bill, including costs of the network, wholesale electricity and retail.

The biggest increases in that time have been environmental costs (up 374 per cent) and retail margin (up 103 per cent).

But the biggest factor in pushing up bills has been two different elements: the cost of gold-plating the network and wholesale electricity.

Energy Council chief executive officer Sarah McNamara, who represents power retailers and wholesalers, is sympathetic to households and businesses struggling with rising bills, but lays the blame in somewhere different.

"The real driver of rising bills in recent years has been wholesale market price volatility and the reasons are no secret — we didn't need as ACCC report to tell us," she said.

"The reasons for that volatility are the sudden closure of two coal-fired power plants, the Northern power station in South Australia and Hazelwood in Victoria … and nothing in terms of dispatchable generation to replace them.

"That has led to price volatility in the wholesale market which of course ends up being passed on to consumers when they receive their bill."

Ms McNamara sees an industry in transition, trying to find stability after 10 years of where policy has been chopped and changed.

"It's a really challenging time for the industry. We've got an electricity market that was built on the basis that it was supplying electricity from coal-fired power stations and gas-fired power stations," she said.

"Now of course we have electricity being generated from any number of different sources, including from people's homes, so there is complexity there and a lot of challenges."

Most of a power bill is made up of the cost of transmitting electricity across the grid, the retailers margin is 8pc. ( Supplied: ACCC )

Households were given generous "feed-in tariffs" for the power they generated, far above market value, to encourage investment in solar.

The ACCC found in some schemes households were paid for all electricity generated by the solar panel — including what was used by the household — so some people were getting paid twice.

The situation differs between states. In New South Wales, for example, premium tariffs ended two years ago, but there are still benefits which run until 2031.

Ms McNamara said people feel "empowered" by having solar panels on their roof, and there's a direct link to lower bills.

"That's unambiguously a good thing and something that should be supported," she said.

"We just need to make sure we're managing the costs of the subsidies that are available to households, to ensure that households without solar aren't paying more than they need to."

People power

Mr Edis said suppliers should be incentivised to install and lead customers in take-up of new technologies.

However, he is worried relying on customers to navigate the complex world of electricity pricing is a recipe for failure.

"It's just not going to happen through some perfect economic model, like that we say let there be a 'free for all' of electricity pricing, where retailers charge whatever they want and then suddenly competition will solve all these problems.

"Unfortunately, consumers have better things to worry about than their electricity bill and electricity pricing."

For Mrs Jannu, even on a cloudy and windy Melbourne day, she feels the sun is shining on her.

Her bills are lower and she takes pride in helping the environment by producing less carbon.

"Because the whole energy issue has become so politicised in Australia, I don't think we can look to our leaders to take control of moving forward into renewable energies," she said.

"So I think 'people power' is what's going to move it forward, and I think a lot of people feel that way, that we need to take it into our own hands and make decisions and move forward."