In a boost for worldwide energy-efficient practices, Australia has now reached one million rooftop solar system installations on both homes and business, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
The Herald said that the growth in Australian solar installations has increased rapidly in the past seven years. In 2006, there was less than 900 installations throughout the country, whereas there were 300,000 installed last year.
David Green, chief executive of Australia's Clean Energy Council, said: "It is remarkable when you think that just five years ago in 2008 there were only about 20,000 systems installed across the entire country."
This rise is particularly surprising since both federal and state governments have reduced or cancelled rooftop solar incentives in recent years.
Queensland is the top state with solar installations, having 304,000 across the area. New South Wales and Victoria come behind with 227,663 and 177,851 respectively.
This high take-up of panels might come as no surprise to UK residents, who perhaps envy the sun-drenched shores of Australia.
However, the grey skies we experience in the UK should not put people off installing the panels.
Firstly, solar panels do still work in cloudy weather, just not at the same intensity of when the sun is in full beam. This means that UK residents can still benefit from solar power generation despite our lack of regular sunshine.
Secondly, there are a number of excellent incentives for UK residents to access, such as the feed in tariff and the Green Deal.
Both offer financial benefits, whether this is simply saving money on the upfront cost of installations (via the Green Deal), or generating money from feeding excess energy back into the National Grid (via the feed in tariff).
You should also consider the reduction in carbon emissions as a result of your solar installation. This can potentially help in reaching the government's national targets of carbon reduction and renewable energy generation.