Anthony Stewart reported this story on Monday, January 4, 2016 08:16:00

KIM LANDERS: In Western Australia rows of solar panels installed on suburban roofs are now producing as much electricity as the state's largest power turbine.



It's part of a growing national trend that will see household solar energy meet a quarter of all Australia's electricity needs by 2020.



As Anthony Stewart reports, experts are predicting this boom will be driven by the installation of super-sized batteries in the family home.



ANTHONY STEWART: With 130 days of clear sunshine a year, the West Australian capital Perth is in the midst of a solar boom.



Twenty per cent of the city's homes are now generating electricity from rows of rooftop solar panels.



Chris Meredith has a system on his roof.



CHRIS MEREDITH: We've got eight panels installed and, as I said, they're on the west-facing roof. We're they're starting to get the sun now. It's coming up towards the middle of morning, so they're starting to pump out the electricity.



ANTHONY STEWART: How much power can we see this machine producing? What is it doing?



CHRIS MEREDITH: It's producing about 1.2 kilowatts at the moment, but it will get up to close to two kilowatts in the afternoon.



Peter Newman is a Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University.



PETER NEWMAN: We are in the extraordinary position of saying that Perth now has rooftop solar as the largest supplier of electricity. It's the biggest power station in WA.



We're nearly 500 megawatts, and it's growing rapidly. So by 2020 we could well have half of Perth's households with rooftop solar. We're 20 per cent now.



ANTHONY STEWART: What does that mean for the electricity grid?



PETER NEWMAN: It's a real problem for the utilities to come to terms with, because they didn't predict it.



They have all these contracts for coal and gas that go 20 or 30 years, despite the boom times, we've actually reduced our electricity consumption during this period because people are just not needing it if you've got the PVs on the roof.



ANTHONY STEWART: Rooftop solar's biggest weakness has been its inability to produce power once the sun sets.



This can be addressed with installation of large battery systems that allow households to store solar energy for use in peak periods, but until recently these have been expensive.



Darren Gladman from the Clean Energy Council says in 2016 household batteries will become increasingly common, with big producers like billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's company Tesla entering the market.



DARREN GLADMAN: The onset of batteries and the entry into the market of providers like Elon Musk is going to really change the way people think about energy, so that we're not just thinking about producing electricity from solar, but also storing it and managing it ourselves.



ANTHONY STEWART: He says Australia will become a global leader in the roll-out of battery technology.



DARREN GLADMAN: Because we've got so many households with solar on the roof, reasonably high electricity prices, and great sun, of course, means that we're a prime market for batteries. So that makes us one of the first markets that people like Elon Musk, but other companies that sell batteries as well, are targeting Australia.



KIM LANDERS: The Clean Energy Council's Darren Gladman ending Anthony Stewart's report.



