It’s time to share the sizzling solar success story by Lindsay Soutar

Anyone walking around their local neighbourhood with their eyes open will have noticed the steady advance of solar onto local rooftops. But how many people realise the sheer size of the rooftop solar explosion across Australia?

This week 100% Renewable released an infographic sharing the story of solar’s success in Australia over the last five years. It’s travelled swiftly across social media, with nearly 100,000 views in the first few days.While the graphic contained figures that would be familiar to readers ofRenewEconomy, it’s a story that’s not well understood in the wider community.How many people know there are 1.5 million households with solar on their roof? How many realise that we have a total 2.2 gigawatts of peak capacity and that householders themselves have stumped up $8 billion to install it? How many have heard that the price of a standard solar system is a quarter of what it was four years ago?

Answer: not that many.

Sometimes it can be hard for the general public to know what’s really going on with renewable energy. A concerted effort to paint solar as the primary driver of energy price rises by parts of the electricity sector, government and media has created plenty of confusion out there.

But what we find time and time again, is that when people do hear the truth about the solar revolution underway they are delighted by the progress its making. The solar success story is one Australians are eager to hear.

So to spread the solar love, last Sunday 100% Renewable worked with community volunteers to host a series of thirty Summer Solar BBQ events in suburbs and towns across the country. BBQs and get togethers were run in places as diverse as Rockhampton, Brisbane, Toowoomba, Dulwich Hill, Inverloch, and Bendigo. Sadly the Broome event was cancelled due to cyclonic weather.

You can check out pictures from the day here. Look out for the Hills Hoists!

Hosts invited their neighbours and members of their community to eat, chat and swap their own solar stories. Proud solar owners ran tours of their solar installations, announced the number of solar homes in their areas and shared the ‘Solar Era Dawns’ graphic.

Colin from Bendigo jammed 40 people into his backyard, 8 of them local solar installers. The folks in Castlemaine hosted a BBQ and a soccer showdown at the local soccer club. In Alice Springs the Arid Land Environment Centre teamed up with Stuart Rotary Club to celebrate in blazing 41 degree heat.

Lively conversation was the order of the day. Solar owners love talking about their solar, it seems. This works well, because people considering investing themselves are most likely to go to existing solar owners for advice.