The tiny town of Weston in the Hunter Region made the news this week for being the place where the one-millionth solar hot water system was installed in Australia.
That means one in nine Australian households has a solar hot water system.
Clean Energy Regulator executive general manager Mark Williamson said the milestone demonstrated a continuing strong interest in households to take up renewable energy and take advantage of the small-scale renewable energy scheme.
“An average household can use around 25 per cent of its total energy on heating water and so solar water heaters are an excellent way to reduce energy bills,” said Mr Williamson.
“More than 258,000 solar hot water systems have been installed in New South Wales, making it the state with the largest uptake in the country.
“I encourage households in other states to look at this as an option next time they are considering what type of hot water system they will install.”
More than 2.5 million small-scale systems have been installed across Australia since the small-scale renewable energy scheme was introduced in 2001. The combined capacity is 9.5 million MWh of electricity each year or enough to power more than 1.4 million average homes.
