Time to push Big Solar into political spotlight

By Andrew Bray on 28 May 2012

With our national identity so tied to a sun-drenched country, using our vast solar resource to power our industry and our homes just makes sense for Australians.In the last three months, members of 40 groups across the country have spent many hours talking to people in their communities about big solar as part of 100% Renewable’s Big Solar Poll. At shopping centres, football games, at people’s doors and even at car part swap meets, volunteers have showed over 8000 people pictures of solar power stations operating in Spain and the US and captured their responses.

So the results were emphatic: 94 per cent of the 12,000 people surveyed supported building big solar plants in Australia. In fact, it was such a no-brainer that many people were surprised to learn that while the Chinese and Americans are building 500 megawatt solar plants, Australia’s largest completed project is a little over 1 megawatt.

Interestingly, a similarly large amount supported the idea of a government fund to help get those plants built. While people understand that the private sector will do the heavy lifting, they also expect the government to provide leadership and funding to make it happen.