Rooftop solar
Australia's Wealthiest Postcodes Have the Least Rooftop Solar
Rooftop solar is often cast as a benefit for households wealthy enough to own a home and buy panels. The installation record says the opposite about where it landed. Across 2,321 postcodes, the most advantaged tenth of the country has the lowest uptake of any group — 132.7 small-scale solar installations per 1,000 residents against a peak of 218.8 in the second-most-disadvantaged decile — and it stays lowest even when the comparison is narrowed to owner-occupied detached houses. The certificates that subsidise those panels are recovered from every electricity bill, including the renters and apartment-dwellers who install the fewest.
Read the investigation