The Future Of Rooftop Solar Power

A photovoltaic system seems a smart choice for powering your home. So is now the right time to install it? Here’s a sneak peek into the future.

Solar seems a smart choice for just about any Australian home with the right roof and last year, more than 360,000 homeowners took the plunge. Australia has the highest uptake of solar globally. Clean Energy Regulator data shows more than 2.68 million rooftop solar power systems have been installed in Australia in total, as of 31 December 2020. That means one in every four homes has solar panels on its roof.

Despite a recent temporary spike in prices due to supply chain issues during the pandemic, it is predicted that the use of solar power will expand dramatically over the next few years — and its cost will continue to fall.

In Australia, solar energy accounts for nine per cent of electricity production right now, and that figure is rising. So what changes can we expect over the next few years?

The changing face of solar PV

Solar panels of tomorrow will look different from the ones we install today. Transparent panels – that can be affixed to pretty much anything – are currently in their infancy and far less efficient than traditional solar panels, but this can only improve as technology catches up to the dream. Solar roof tiles, which look like ordinary roof tiles, are also predicted to be big business. Each tile contains a solar cell, and when they’re linked in series, can generate as much energy as today’s solar panel setup. Tesla, among others, is working on this technology as we write.

Solar and the environment

Solar is not all sunshine. Global reserves of rare earth elements used in solar panels such as neodymium, terbium and indium are dwindling fast so companies will have to find alternatives and improve their metal recycling and recovery systems. At the moment, there are no laws regulating the solar industry’s waste. No data is being collected as to the number of solar panels ending up in landfill, but industry experts predict the amount of waste from solar panels could reach 1,500 kilotons by 2050. The federal government is currently considering law reforms to address how the industry deals with its waste. 

Tomorrow’s solar

One of the most exciting developments in solar technology is perovskites. Today, almost all solar PV panels are made from rigid wafers of silicon. The solar panels of the future will be made with perovskites – manufactured crystals that can be turned into a liquid, and applied to, well, anything really. As the liquid dries, crystals form and they line up in a way that makes them work as semiconductors. The liquid can be painted onto a structural surface such as the wall of a building or noise reduction panels on highways. Or it could be used in ‘solar skins’ that wrap around vehicles.

Solar power getting cheaper 

Improvements in solar manufacturing coupled with financial incentives have seen costs decline and that is likely to continue. Residential per-watt installations costs have dropped by more than half since the early adopters got on board. Battery prices are also expected to fall as the take-up increases. And if efficiency rates continue to improve as they have for the past several years, the average high-end solar panel will see its efficiency rate rising from 15 per cent to around 30 per cent by 2038.

Wearable solar

UK researchers claim to have proved the viability of wearable PV. A solar-powered fabric textile was created by embedding the crystal solar cells into the fibres of a textile via teeny copper wires. They claim it can maintain its performance even after 15 domestic machine wash cycles. Solar-powered overalls, anyone?