Ensuring all new homes in NSW are fully electric and accelerating rooftop solar and battery storage on large commercial and industrial rooftops are the most effective ways to address rising greenhouse gas emissions within the built environment sector, says Solar Citizens in our submission to the NSW Net Zero Commission consultation, which is open until Friday 11 July.
The Net Zero Commission’s recommendations to the NSW government are key to getting the state back on track to meet legislated emission reduction targets of 50% reductions by 2030 on 2005 levels, and 70% by 2035..
Solar Citizens National Campaigner Charlie Rodrick said:
“The Net Zero Commission’s Annual Report finds that NSW is not on track to meet its emission reduction targets, and that the built environment sector is the worst performer, it has almost doubled greenhouse emissions, while all other sectors have reduced their emissions since 2005. (1)
“Our submission to the commission’s 2025 consultation points out that it’s the state’s approach to building and retrofitting homes and commercial buildings that could have a huge impact in both producing clean energy to support the grid and reducing on-site emissions.
“There is still huge untapped opportunity for rooftop solar generation in NSW - Solar Citizens and the Australian Photovoltaic Institute identified 14 Gigawatts of solar potential on existing residential rooftops [2], and Nexa Advisory identified 7 GW of solar potential on commercial rooftops. [3] And that’s not including the added generation capacity of the almost 400,000 new homes set to be built in the next five years across the state.
"That’s at least 20 GW of clean energy capacity waiting to be realised across NSW’s built environment sector - equivalent to the 19.7 GW of approved large-scale renewable energy projects planned for NSW [3]. The capacity of Eraring, Australia’s largest coal-fired power station, is less than 3GW.
“It makes sense to invest in supporting commercial and industrial rooftop solar, firmed by battery storage because it's in our urban areas that electricity demand is highest and where distributed transmission infrastructure already exists or can be easily installed or upgraded.
“Specifically, Solar Citizens recommends introducing incentives for businesses to install large-scale solar systems (>100kw) and mid-scale behind-the-meter battery storage systems (>50kw) with favourable tariff structures set up to support their business activities as well as incentivising the export of providing clean, cheap renewable energy to surrounding homes including apartments, rentals and strata-titled properties.
“Activating commercial and industrial rooftops is a key aspect of developing our cities as Urban Renewable Energy Zones - which we recommend the state government should investigate.
“The potential benefits of creating Urban Renewable Energy Zones include: emissions reduction; accelerated deployment of renewable energy generation and storage; local resilience to blackouts and natural disasters; and increased energy equity with cost of living relief for all households.
“Solar Citizens proposes that the NSW government follow the lead of 5 councils, including City of Sydney and Parramatta, and make electrification mandatory in all new residential buildings - especially the 377,000 targeted new dwellings across the state to be built before 2030, including up to 60,000 apartments to be approved under the Transport Oriented Development (TOD) Program before November 2027.
“This would mean preventing new gas connections being installed - including for hot water heating, cooking, heating and cooling - in all new residential and commercial developments, starting with apartments and strata as the first priority .”
Solar Citizens' submission also recommends that the NSW Government:
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Support renters by introducing Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards, alongside rebates, loans or other incentives to drive rooftop solar uptake
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Commit to ambitious targets to electrify and decarbonise all social housing in NSW, with rooftop solar and battery storage connected to Virtual Power Plants
- Continue to support strata and apartments with policies and funding - especially hard-to-retrofit buildings like high rise apartments
“We urge the Net Zero Commission to include these recommendations in their advice to the NSW Government, and to present them as an opportunity as well as a responsibility to deliver on much needed housing targets, as well as to combat cost of living pressures on households and act to reduce the built environment sector’s rising greenhouse gas emissions,” concluded Ms Rodrick.
Read and download Solar Citizens submission to Net Zero Commission consultation.
NOTES
1) Net Zero Commission Annual Report (2024) Net Zero Commission
2) Solar Potential Report (2024) Solar Citizens
3) Renewable Energy Transition Update (2024) NSW Government
3) More NSW businesses with rooftop solar would be a ‘win win’ (2024) Nexa Advisory