For over 100 years, the supply of electricity to peoples’ homes and businesses was simple. Large coal, gas-fired, and hydro generators produced electricity that was transported along the transmission lines (often seen running parallel to major highways and freeways) into the distribution network (poles and wires we see in our local streets) and then into our workplaces and homes.
Over the past 15 years, however, we have seen the development of a broad range of new electricity generation technologies across the world that have changed the way in which we generate and store energy in our homes and businesses.
To large extent, individual Australians have led this transformation - in the innovation of cost efficient solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies and in customers’ world-leading rate of uptake of rooftop solar.
According to the Clean Energy Council, more than 2.3 million households now enjoy the benefits of rooftop solar across Australia. Australia is also emerging as the world leader in energy storage uptake, with some 22,661 small-scale batteries installed in 2019 taking Australia's household storage capacity past 1 GWh for the first time. And while electric vehicle (EV) sales in Australia have been modest relative to global trends, government policies have the potential to facilitate increased uptake in Australia commensurate with overseas markets.
Solar PV and home batteries now mean that many of us have a choice of whether we buy electricity through the traditional centralised source or generate it ourselves in our homes or workplaces. These local energy sources (solar, batteries and electric vehicles) are commonly referred to Distributed Energy Resources (DER).