The government is rolling out a new scheme, branded Solar Sharer, that leans into Australia’s rooftop solar boom by turning the midday supply glut into a consumer perk rather than a grid headache. With solar panels now sitting on more than 4 million homes and often generating more daytime power than the coal fleet, wholesale prices regularly fall below zero and the government wants households to take advantage of that cheap energy instead of letting it go to waste.
Under the plan, retailers operating in New South Wales, South Australia and south east Queensland will have just five months to design and launch new power offers that include three free hours of electricity in the middle of the day with a cap on how much can be used in that window. Internal government analysis suggests that simply running big appliances like dishwashers, washing machines and dryers during that free period, roughly 20% of typical household usage, could save a large family somewhere between $500 and $790 a year. Even a single person household shifting only a few appliances might trim around $150 off their annual bill. For larger households with an electric vehicle able to move 25% to 30% of their consumption into the window, the numbers climb toward $800 to $1100 in savings. This explains why retailers worry that those with batteries and EVs will benefit most and will place the greatest stress on the economics of the offer.
In the bigger picture, Solar Sharer looks like an attempt to tackle several problems at once. It is designed to ease pressure on households facing stubbornly high energy bills, soak up excess daytime solar that would otherwise be curtailed and show progress on the clean energy transition at a time when new renewable projects are taking longer than expected. At the same time, major industry groups warn that forcing a complex, opt in free power product into the market on short deadlines without much early consultation is likely to create implementation risks, uneven benefits and uncertainty for investors who are watching how Australia manages its evolving electricity system.
