By CLAIRE O’ROURKE  •  ABC Environment |  11 AUG 2015. View original source article here

With more than a million Australian rooftops now sporting solar panels, it’s created a powerful advertisement for the benefits of renewable energy and a powerful block of pro-renewable voters.

HERE’S AN INCENDIARY statement: solar is ordinary. Really ordinary. In fact, it’s so ordinary that these days solar has become the new normal in our homes and in our culture. Soaring uptake rates are driving sky-high engagement in clean energy that is influencing people, policy and politics in ways we have not seen before.

Solar PV was once the territory of the hardened greenie or off-grid obsessive, but these days it’s as common as a BBQ on Australia Day. (Have you actually been at a BBQ where people start talking about their solar panels? If you haven’t yet it’s only a matter of time — you’ll find people comparing feed-in-tariffs, kilowatt hours and demand shifting in intimate detail before your steak’s medium rare.)

In Australia right now, 1.4 million-plus rooftops now sport this money-saving, planet greening technology, up from only around 14,000 systems seven years ago according to data collated by the Clean Energy Regulator. That’s right: 14,000 to more than 1.4 million in only seven years.

There are a few reasons why this happened.  (READ MORE)