Experts say there has been record growth in rooftop solar.

An audit of the National Electricity Market by The Australia Institute has found strong growth in uptake of rooftop solar, supplying over 16 per cent of South Australia’s total electricity consumption last summer, and 7.7 per cent of Queensland’s consumption over the same period.

The audit shows the share of rooftop solar in total generation in South Australia has jumped from 10.1 per cent to its 16 per cent in the first quarter of 2020, while in Queensland jumped from 5 per cent to 7.7 per cent.

The National Energy Emissions Audit predicts renewable energy in Australia will have a 25 per cent share of generation for the first time in the year to April 2020.

It may even be working to drive fossil fuel generators out of the market.

“Without rooftop solar, gas generation in South Australia would have had to supply 20 per cent more electricity in summer 2017-18 and 44 per cent more in summer 2019-20,” the audit says.

At current growth rates, up to 10TWh of Australia’s coal power supplies will be pushed out of the market over the next three years.

“Given the disruptive nature of the pandemic and its effect on sectors like transport, it might surprise some that the carbon emissions from electricity – the most polluting sector in Australia — have been so small,” report author Dr Hugh Saddler said.

“With most Australians ‘grounded’ transport emissions have dropped significantly but major electricity and gas users are still operating as per usual, and there is higher household demand.

“In the last 12 months renewables have performed strongly and on Easter Saturday, renewables generated half of Australia’s electricity for nearly two hours, an impressive new milestone that has only been achieved for a few minutes in the past.”