On 11 October 2020, South Australia successfully used electricity with 100 percent of its supply from solar. Lots Indonesian citizens who live there for a long time using this renewable energy source.
According to the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) report, on that Sunday, October 11, South Australia was recorded as the first region in the world for more than 1 hour to have all its energy needs supplied by solar power.
“This is an extraordinary phenomenon in the global energy order,” said AEMO CEO Audrey Zibelman.
“Never before has an area the size of South Australia been entirely supplied by solar power, 77 percent of which comes from panels on the roofs of residents’ houses,” he said.
The remaining 23 percent is supplied from solar power fields in the Tailem Bend and Port Augusta areas.
In fact, excess electricity from gas and wind power plants that day was stored in batteries or piped to the neighboring state of Victoria, South Australia.
Electricity bills are cheap Indonesian resident Nuraeni Mosel, installed as many as 40 solar panels on the roof of his house in Adelaide. (Supplied)
The use of solar electricity in South Australia has been carried out by a number of Indonesians living in Adelaide.
“Since our permanent residence from 2013, we installed these solar panels in 2014. A total of 40 panels,” said Nuraeni Mosel, a resident from Indonesia.
“The reason is mainly to reduce electricity costs and maintain the sustainability of nature and the environment. At least we reduce our carbon footprint if we use solar panels,” he said.
“The cost is not cheap, but in the long run, we get the benefits back. Once we got a bill for only $ 65, but usually it’s always over $ 500,” said Nuraeni.
According to Nuraeni’s experience, one of the advantages of solar panels is that all jobs that require electricity, such as washing machines, dryers and dishwashers are carried out during the day using solar power.
Meanwhile, Nila Osborne, who moved to Adelaide since 2016, has installed 13 solar panels on the roof of her house in February 2017.
“The consideration was that at that time the price of electricity in South Australia was known to be the most expensive in Australia and we as retirees were trying to save as much as possible,” said Nila.
“Solar panels are the right answer to save electricity. In terms of costs,” he said.
Indonesian resident Nila Osborne installed 13 solar panels on the roof of her Adelaide house since February 2017. (Supplied)
Nila spent AU $ 4,500 dollars, or more than Rp.45 million, when installing 13 solar panels and admits that now her electricity bill can save up to 15 percent.
He explained that the weather factor affects how much energy the solar panels can produce.
“The cost of using electricity is calculated from how much we consume minus the calculation of the energy tariff for the panels,” he explained.
“So there are bad days and good days in the calculations, but in the end it is still much cheaper than without panels,” said Nila.
Another resident, Henry Michael Pattie, said he had installed as many as 22 solar panels in his house since last February.
“In the summer of last year, we used air conditioning at home from day to night, so electricity consumption was very high,” he told ABC Indonesia journalist Farid M. Ibrahim.
Finally he decided to install solar panels and it was very helpful.
Install batteries can also be subsidized
However, Henry admits that he is constrained because the electrical energy generated from the panels on the roof of his house can only be used during the day, not at night when the electricity demand is greater.
Henry Michael Pattie from Energyfocus, an energy management company in Australia that focuses on reducing costs in energy use. (Supplied)
As a solution, Henry also installed a battery with a capacity of 14 kilowatts per hour since last April which cost 11,000 dollars.
However, the cost received a subsidy from the government of AU $ 6,000, or more than Rp. 60 million, so he only spent AU $ 5,000 for the installation of energy storage batteries generated from solar panels on top of his house.
“Currently we are practically independent in energy use. In fact, since the last three weeks all the energy in our homes is generated from solar panels,” said Henry, who has lived in Adelaide for five years.
According to Henry, what South Australia has achieved today is the fruit of a long journey of an environmentally friendly policy.
“The South Australian government has modified the supply and demand side through various subsidies. From the supply side there are subsidies for the purchase of solar panels and the REES (retailer energy efficiency scheme) scheme,” he said.
“There is also a Building Upgrade Finance scheme that helps finance building owners who are committed to reducing energy use in their buildings,” said Henry.
One of the solar power generating fields in Port Agusta South Australia. (ABC News: Carl Saville)
From the demand side, the government tries to reduce public demand by providing subsidies for the purchase of batteries so that energy use in the evening and at night, especially domestic ones, also drops.
“For the demand side of commercial buildings, the Australian Government requires office building owners to disclose their energy use on a star rating scale, which must be audited by an independent consultant,” explained Henry.
“The various complementary policies can produce what we saw last Sunday (October 11),” he said.
AEMO estimates that there will be an additional 36,000 households installing solar panels in South Australia over the next 14 months.
To date, around 288,000 households in the state already own solar panels.
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