100% Renewable Energy's solar scorecard reveals MPs in seats with the highest take-up are less supportive of solar energy

The areas in Australia with the strongest take-up of solar energy have MPs who largely don't support the sector, according to a new scorecard of federal Australian MPs that grades them on his or her attitude to solar power.

The 100% Renewable Energy's solar scorecard has ranked each House of Representatives member on various criteria, including their commitment to the renewable energy target, carbon pricing and support for large-scale solar projects.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Adam Bandt, the only Greens member in the lower house, came out on top, with full marks in each of the categories.

Liberal Alby Schultz, who has called the renewable energy target "the biggest government sponsored fraud in the history of our country" came bottom of the rankings.

The top half of the rankings are dominated by Labor MPs, with Graham Perrett, Julie Owens and former speaker Harry Jenkins all ranked as strong supporters of solar.

However, there are exceptions. Four Liberals, headed by shadow communications minister Malcolm Turnbull, are ahead of environment minister Tony Burke, who is deemed to have uncertain support for large solar projects.

Interestingly, in terms of electorates with the highest solar panel take-up rates, Wright, Mayo, Kingston, Grey and Fisher lead the way. Ironically, only one of these electorates has a Labor MP, with the rest presided over by Coalition members who are ranked lowly on the solar scorecard.

100% Renewable Energy said solar power in Australia has created 15,000 jobs, saved three million tonnes of CO2 and knocked $551.6 million off household power bills.

However, Lindsay Soutar, national director of the advocacy group, said that many MPs were generally unaware of these benefits.

"Politicians realise that solar is popular with people, especially as the price of rooftop panels has come down, but the coal and gas industries still have a huge influence over them," she said. "There isn't much understanding of solar among politicians. Many don't understand that a 1.5KW solar system for your roof costs $3000 now when it cost $12,000 just a few years ago. The price drop is significant."

Russell Marsh, policy director at the Clean Energy Council, said he was confident that solar energy would continue to grow in Australia regardless of the federal election outcome in September.

"You can't say either side of politics treated it differently. The Coalition is very interested in rooftop solar and large-scale solar too and they have signed up to the 20% renewable energy target," he said. "There's a common myth that household solar is installed by rich people and paid for by poor people. But when you look into it, you can see that the highest levels of take-up are in the mortgage belts with retirees. Those on lower incomes are benefitting from solar PV."

"You'd hope that as those individual MPs realise the benefits of solar in their electorates, their views may change."

Despite a winding back of feed-in tariffs – the amount paid to solar households for generating energy for the grid – across Australia, around $8 billion has been invested in the domestic market on panels, encompassing 2.5 million people.

Soutar said that misinformation about solar, and policy uncertainty around issues such as the carbon price and the renewable energy target, are holding back the sector.

"Politicians use solar schemes and the carbon price as a scapegoat for energy price rises when the independent evidence shows that most of the rise is driven by investment in poles and wires," she said.

"We know there are anti-renewable energy warriors in the Coalition and we are concerned what the position will be after the election. There needs to be policy certainty, especially around the support of the renewable energy target, or people won't invest on a large scale.

"Rooftop solar is popular in mortgage-belt marginal seats, as well as rural and regional Australia. But this doesn't correlate to political support. I can't understand why, for example, the Nationals don't support renewables far more, given the jobs and investment wind and solar can provide for those areas."