Solar Heating and Cooling in Australia's Built Environment – an Industry Roadmap
Abstract
The Australian market is simultaneously small and large – 24 million residents live in a country the size of the USA. It has the highest average solar radiation per square metre of any continent in the world. Despite this, solar energy use in 2014-15 represented 0.6 per cent of Australia’s total primary energy consumption and 2.4% of electricity production. The energy used by buildings represents about 20% of total energy consumption in Australia, contributing about 26% of national (anthropogenic) greenhouse emissions. Of that energy, on average 40% are used for space conditioning and domestic hot water. This paper will discuss Australia’s market for heating and cooling, and how solar heating and cooling (SHC) can be used in Australia’s built environment to augment, replace or improve existing heating and cooling technology solutions. Specific opportunities for improving the market uptake of SHC technologies have been identified in the context of declining political appetite for subsidies.