Price of Solar Power in Australia

One of my friend just installed a 1kW solar panel on his roof, costing his family AUD12,000 after an Australian government rebate of AUD8000. I think it is not right.

I checked this website which quoted the price of solar panel in US to be around USD3 to USD4.85 per watt. My friend is paying AUD12 per watt (after installation and connection to the grid), i.e. without government rebate, we have to pay around AUD20 per watt which is up to 5 times the price from US.

A note for green business entrepreneur, there is a federal government rebate of AUD8 per watt for up to 1000W. If you can import solar panel into Australia (say from China at around US1.5 per Watt + 10% GST), connection equipment to grid at AUD3000, with the government's rebate, you have about AUD3000 to cover your effort and profit. May be if this is not enough, many home owners would be happy to pay something on top of that too (My friend paid AUD12,000!). My friend told me that it took two men half a day to install his solar panels. Yes, the current funding is capped at AUD150 million. But that should be able to give your business a good start. Contact me when you start your business, I will be your first customer (but don't expect me to pay AUD12000 on top). I do not support greedy enterprises!

Start selling sunlight, Australia

[Photo credit: the Age]

Coal and oil are basically sunlight from millions of years ago. They are finite resources. Using them create green house gases. Coal mining is one of the most dangerous job... You get the idea.

Farming and agricultural produce are also product of solar energy, in the form of food.

In terms of selling essentials, there are several main categories:

labour (such as those sweatshops from under-developed or developing countries),

resources (such as all the digging happening in Australia),

renewable resources (such as food production as in farming),

service (tourism, hospitality, music, art etc which makes our life wonderful),

creativity (new ways of doing things, scientific research, etc),

Rip-off (commerce and law! :-) Sorry for the title, just a joke!)

Looking at the solar map above, [Yes, that's a map released by NASA showing the amount of solar energy received on earth surface. Darker the colour, the more energy received. source] Australia should start finding ways to sell its immerse amount of solar energy in ways other than farming. It is better than digging up all the earth!

How Much Land to Power The Whole World with Solar?

"Solar power systems installed in the areas defined by the dark disks could provide a little more than the world's current total primary energy demand (assuming a conversion efficiency of 8%).

From what I see, it is NOT that much area needed.
See this table from the original article:

Location / Desert	Desert Size / km2 [5]	Irradiation / W m-2	Area required / km2
Africa, Sahara	9,064,960	260	144,231
Australia, Great Sandy	388,500	265	141,509
China, Takla Makan	271,950	210	178,571
Middle-East, Arabian	2,589,910	270	138,889
South America, Atacama	139,860	275	136,364
U.S.A., Great Basin	492,100	220	170,455

Where on Earth is best for Solar Energy?

Here is a map from cNet News.com