“Why hasn’t solar taken off in Australia?”
The main reason is simple economics.
The economic life of a solar panel is about seven years.
The economic return on the imbedded cost to install is about seven years.
Australian households installed as many domestic battery systems in the final six months of 2025 as they did in the entire preceding five years. But the number of installed solar panels is stagnant. The paradox is due to reductions to feed-in tariffs (payments for exporting solar power back to the main grid) making it more cost-effective to store and use energy from solar panels for the home rather than selling it back to the grid.
The uptake of EVs in Australia is lagging. Yes the vast majority of vehicles spend the vast majority of their travelling time on metropolitan roads. It’s mostly based on purchase prices and insurance costs plus most Aussies dream of travelling the wide open country spaces that you see in car advertising panoramas. Which is a delusion.
Just like most 4WD SUVs never go off a sealed bitumen road.
When the war broke out and there was a spike in oil prices, the oil prices quoted in the news were light crude (brent and wtl). This understated the issue. Asia relies on heavy crude from the Middle East via Hormuz. Once war broke out, Asian countries contacted for heavy crude from other sources, like the North Sea, but since it is father away, the contracts are for May.
I think there’s another shoe (or two) to drop from the shortfall of heavy crude and the impact as this trickles through the supply chain and raises prices at every stage.
Here on PEI I just drove by a gas station at 198.4 a liter (something like $6 USD/gal I think?). Probably the highest outside of the immediate post-COVID period, where I think I recall seeing as high as 2.25/L. I’m not too concerned for myself right now, but as you said prices are likely to go up across the board. Some coworkers with longer commutes have started to seriously look into busing and car-pool options, or biking whenever the ice goes away, which is inconvenient but I suppose ultimately positive.
Just a note–E85 is 85% ethanol, not 15% and in the right application makes far more powahhhh than regular gasoline. Cf Dodge Hellcat. I’m also confused by the pollution aspect–it’s my understanding that E15 is available in the winter to reduce pollution, especially in cities such as Salt Lake and Denver which are prone to winter inversions?
Thanks for the catch, I can only apologize that my addled brain (for some reason) put in E85 instead of E15, and can only bow my head in shame.
The issue of higher ethanol fuel is that it generally produces more power (as you point out) but noticeably reduced energy storage by volume. And the few motorheads I’m dealing with and giving the side-eye are generally using older vehicles that consider themselves purists. So I’m probably getting a very biased perspective from them.
My FiL has a restored 57’ Chevy pickup that he takes to local shows, which is where I picked up those sorts of comments.
Back to my second assertation that was wrong, or rather, I was picking up from sources that are probably biased, so I have been spending time trying to find a source that’s consistent. Some are saying overall worse because the energy to grow the corn (including fertilizer, farm equipment, transportation etc.) has worse consequences than using petroleum, though it’s renewable. And other sources are saying that it’s the perfect fuel and there are no consequences with nothing but upsides.
So again, I apologize for 1) brain failure and 2) probable bias and 3) poor research. Not up to my usual performance.