Months-long grid connection delays and costs that blow out by up to six times the originally quoted amount are among a bevy of barriers preventing commercial and industrial customers from sharing in the benefits of solar and battery storage, a new report has found.
The Smart Energy Council (SEC) report, Unlocking the Missing Middle, underscores that while Australia leads the world in residential and large-scale solar, the medium-sized C&I market is being stalled by outdated regulations, slow grid approvals, collapsed rebates, and landlord-tenant disputes.
The report focuses on the 100 kilowatt (kW) to 30 megawatt (MW) segment for rooftop solar – systems too large to qualify for residential incentive schemes like the SRES, and too small to access the policy and market mechanisms built for utility-scale generation.
This gap in targeted policies, compounded by a series of investment and regulatory barriers, is not only depriving a huge number of businesses from huge potential savings from solar and battery storage, but is holding back a key contributor to the energy transition.
“Australia is sitting on a rooftop power station the size of ten coal plants,” says SEC chief David McElrea. “It is time we switched it on.
