Nature Energy intl_tech D1

发布：2026-05-27 · 事件：2026-05-27

Subjects Climate-change adaptation Climate-change policy Energy and society Psychology and behaviour Access through your institution Buy or subscribe High uptake of rooftop solar helps with the renewa...

Subjects Climate-change adaptation Climate-change policy Energy and society Psychology and behaviour Access through your institution Buy or subscribe High uptake of rooftop solar helps with the renewable energy transition, but comes with unique challenges. For example, solar energy production peaking around midday can lead to network capacity challenges 1 , and rooftop solar may not be equally accessible to the entire population due to installation costs 2 or lack of home ownership 3 . To address both of these issues, the Australian Federal Government has announced a new scheme: Solar Sharer. Solar Sharer will be available from July 2026 to households with smart meters in three Australian Default Market Offer areas — New South Wales, South East Queensland, South Australia — and has the unique potential to support a just energy transition in the country. The major benefits of the scheme are that households do not need to have solar panels to be eligible to participate, and those who sign up to a Solar Sharer plan will have access to three hours of free electricity (up to 24 kWh per day) around midday. Obviously, the success of the scheme will depend on whether or not the public both opt into Solar Sharer and actively shift at least some of their electricity use to midday, or add use by, for example, charging an electric vehicle in the middle of the day. Should the scheme work as intended — to entice households to shift electricity consumption into the midday period — it may help in reducing the risk of the electricity grid being overwhelmed by excess imports 4 . While some retailers (in Australia and globally) have introduced similar offers, Solar Sharer is the first such government-regulated offer globally. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access options Access through your institution Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription 27,99 € / 30 days cancel any time Learn more Subscribe to this journal Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles 111,21 € per year only 9,27 € per issue Learn more Buy this article Purchase on SpringerLink Instant access to the full article PDF. 39,95 € Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout References Braslavsky, J. & Walker, S. Balancing Australia’s ocean of electricity. CSIRO https://www.csiro.au/en/news/all/articles/2025/october/ocean-of-electricity (2025). McLoughlin, C. Solar panels not benefiting poor who can’t afford them, SACOSS says. ABC News https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-01/poor-feel-power-price-pain-because-solar-panels-out-of-reach/8761422 (2017). Mountain, B. & Burns, K. Is rooftop solar a play-thing of the well-to-do? A critique of the argument and evidence. Victoria Energy Policy Centre https://doi.org/10.26196/qmk0-a912 (2021). Article Google Scholar Rimrod, F. What Australia’s energy regulator wants you to know about offering free hours of power. ABC News https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-14/free-power-part-of-aer-dfo-draft-release/106446770 (2026). Default market offer 2026–27. Australian Energy Regulator https://www.aer.gov.au/industry/registers/resources/reviews/default-market-offer-2026-27 (2026). Evans, J. St. B. T. & Stanovich, K. E. Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 8 , 223–241 (2013). Article Google Scholar Dolnicar, S., Grün, B. & MacInnes, S. Preprint at https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/5zmav (2023). Download references Funding This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (FL190100143). Author information Authors and Affiliations The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Anna K. Zinn & Sara Dolnicar University of Primorska, Faculty for Tourism Studies, Portorož, Slovenia Sara Dolnicar Authors Anna K. Zinn View author publications Search author on: PubMed Google Scholar Sara Dolnicar View author publications Search author on: PubMed Google Scholar Corresponding authors Correspondence to Anna K. Zinn or Sara Dolnicar . Ethics declarations Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests. Rights and permissions Reprints and permissions About this article Cite this article Zinn, A.K., Dolnicar, S. An Australian government scheme holds potential for supporting a just energy transition. Nat Energy (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-026-02075-w Download citation Published : 18 May 2026 Version of record : 18 May 2026 DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-026-02075-w Share this article Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Copy shareable link to clipboard Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative