The New Zealand government has recommended legalising plug-in solar in Aotearoa, moving a crucial step closer to tapping into a huge new, and game-changing market for distributed PV – and potentially beating Australia to the punch.
Plug-in solar – sometimes called ‘balcony solar’ in reference to one of its most common applications – has been a runaway success in parts of Europe, like Germany, where it has extended the bill-slashing benefits of PV to apartment dwellers and renters and others previously locked out of the market.
In Australia, however, it is not yet legal. As Smart Energy Lab general manager Glenn Morris explained it to Renew Economy here, Australia and New Zealand have slightly different electrical standards than the rest of the world, in terms of the configuration of our networks and safety requirements.
And while various state governments around Australia seem keen on addressing the legal, technical and regulatory barriers to plug-in balcony solar and batteries, it does not yet appear to be anywhere on the radar of the federal government.
Across the ditch, however, the Ministry for Regulation has just completed a major review into the New Zealand’s solar installation system, identifying a package of recommendations to make it easier and more predictable for households and businesses to install solar.
