Mike B Roberts

UNSW Sydney | UNSW · School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering

This report estimates the total potential for rooftop solar in Austral;ia to be 179 gigawatts with an annual energy output of 245 terawatt-hours. It was produced in collaboration between the Australian PV Institute, the University of New South Wales and the Institute for Sustainable Futures. The analysis was undertaken by Jessie Copper, Mike Rober...

Appliance level control and automation is an increasingly promising demand-side management tool with growing installation of advanced metering, monitoring and control infrastructure in both residential and commercial contexts. Successful implementation of appliance control and automation can alleviate network peak demand and improve distributed pho...

Energy companies and new aggregation businesses have recently promoted Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) to solve many problems in energy systems by aggregating and coordinating rooftop solar and household batteries to act in unison. If successful, they could support deployment of renewable generation into electricity distribution networks and enable hou...

Energy resilience in bushfires and extreme weather events: Final report of the ESKIES project

With increased incidence of fires, floods and severe weather events, it is important that households understand their options and needs when it comes to ensuring electricity supply, especially to critical appliances. We’ve drawn on the experience of New South Wales (Australia) householders who’ve relied on alternative power sources in a blackout to...

Australia’s electricity networks are experiencing low demand during the day due to excessive residential solar export and high demand during the evening on days of extreme temperature due to high air conditioning use. Pre-cooling and solar pre-cooling are demand-side management strategies with the potential to address both these issues. However, th...

Rapid decarbonisation of electricity production is required if Australia is to meet its obligations under the Paris Agreement. Critical to achieving this at low cost while maintaining system reliability is the selection of an appropriate mix of generation technologies to service electrical demand. Australia has seen extensive deployment of renewabl...

It is widely acknowledged that climate change is occurring because of anthropogenic emissions. To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, many countries are aiming to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Reaching net zero emissions by 2050 will likely require a net zero electricity grid somewhat earlier than 2050 as other sectors of the economy w...

Executive Summary Australia's social and community housing could host as much as 1.8 Gigawatts (GW) of rooftop solar, allowing some of Australia's most vulnerable energy consumers to benefit from the low cost of solar. This is enough to: • provide more than 2,000 skilled jobs for 5 years • save 440,000 households an average of $750 every year for 2...

Deployment of rooftop solar photovoltaics on multi-family buildings lags behind other residential buildings sectors, despite the benefit of significantly higher self-consumption achievable by applying on-site generation to aggregated building load. This is, in part, because of challenges in developing suitable business models to ensure the fair all...

Water heating is one of the most energy intensive applications in households and domestic electric water heating systems (DEWH) offer large thermal storage for moving electrical load across the day. This study uses a unique dataset from 410 households and presents a comprehensive analysis of electricity consumption and hot water draw of DEWH for th...

Research by UNSW and APVI shows there is a lead role for AFL, cricket and soccer clubs, associations and national governing organisations to play in mitigating the impacts of climate change in Australia. This document reports the findings on AFL.

Research by UNSW and APVI shows there is a lead role for AFL, cricket and soccer clubs, associations and national governing organisations to play in mitigating the impacts of climate change in Australia. This document reports the findings on Australian Cricket.

Research by UNSW and APVI shows there is a lead role for AFL, cricket and soccer clubs, associations and national governing organisations to play in mitigating the impacts of climate change in Australia. This document reports the findings on Australian Soccer.

This report summarises the results and insights drawn from online surveys of Solar Analytics customers and other energy consumers and prosumers with an interest in Smart Home Energy Management Systems (SHEMS), as well as in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 24 of the participants. tl;dr Consumers and prosumers want individual circuit monitorin...

Although the amount of solar photovoltaic systems installed in residential buildings is increasing globally, it is largely limited to single-occupancy dwellings and is extremely uneven across jurisdictions. Deployment on apartment buildings remains low, even in Australia with its world-leading residential photovoltaic penetration, or in countries s...

Over the last two decades, grid-connecte d solar photovoltaic systems have increased from a niche market to one of the leading power generation capacity additions annually. In 2019 the total worldwide installed photovoltaic electricity generation capacity exceeded 630 GW. It is forecasted that 1 TW will be reached by 2022. This further development...

In the context of increasing retail electricity prices, rooftop PV is a potential low-cost source of electricity for residential customers. Hence, over two million Australian homes have solar PV on their rooftops. However, the penetration of rooftop PV on apartment buildings is shallow in Australia compared to single-unit households, due to regulat...

As subsidised feed-in-tariffs for distributed photovoltaic (PV) generation are reduced or abolished in many jurisdictions, there is growing interest in increasing self-consumption to realise greater value from rooftop PV generation. However, deployment of PV on apartment buildings lags behind other residential deployment despite the potential advan...

Photovoltaic (PV) generation is emerging as a significant technology in the global energy transition. However, while rapid urbanisation is driving increasing housing density, PV uptake in multi-occupancy housing has been limited by comparison with stand-alone housing in many jurisdictions, including in Australia, despite its world-leading 22% resid...

Over the last two decades, grid-connected solar photovoltaic systems have increased from a niche market to one of the leading power generation capacity additions annually. In 2018 the total installed photovoltaic electricity generation capacity exceeded 500 GW. Another doubling is forecasted until the early 2020s. Therefore, the further development...

Understanding of residential electricity demand has application in efficient building design, network planning and broader policy and regulation, as well as in planning the deployment of energy efficiency technologies and distributed energy resources with potential emissions reduction benefits and societal and household cost savings. Very few studi...

Distributed photovoltaics is playing a growing role in electricity industries around the world, while Battery Energy Storage Systems are falling in cost and starting to be deployed by energy consumers with photovoltaics. Apartment buildings offer an opportunity to apply central battery storage and shared solar generation to ag-gregated apartment an...

Distributed photovoltaics (PV) is playing a growing role in electricity industries around the world, while Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) are falling in cost and starting to be deployed by energy consumers with PV. Apartment buildings offer an opportunity to apply central BESS and shared PV generation to aggregated apartment and common loads...

The authors are Australia-based energy researchers who view a close link between access to energy data and the country's transition to a sustainable and just community-based energy future, which they argue is currently hampered by some major incumbent energy sector businesses and politicians. Rooftop solar (PV) panels are popular additions to Aust...

Understanding of residential electricity demand has application in efficient building design, network planning and broader policy and regulation, as well as in planning the deployment of energy efficiency technologies and distributed energy resources with potential emissions reduction benefits as well societal and household cost savings. Very few s...

This paper reviews opportunities for, and barriers to, increasing photovoltaic (PV) deployment on apartment buildings, with a particular focus on the Australian experience. In 2015, residential loads account for 27% of global electricity use [1], while offsetting these loads with rooftop PV has been significant in developing a commercial global PV...

This paper reviews opportunities for, and barriers to, increasing photovoltaic (PV) deployment on apartment buildings, with a particular focus on the Australian experience. As rapid urbanisation drives increasing housing density, PV penetration in multi-occupancy housing has been limited by comparison with stand-alone housing in many jurisdictions,...

Deployment of rooftop photovoltaics (PV) is technically constrained by the availability of suitable roof space as well as by the ability of the distribution network to absorb exported generation. Although Australian rooftop PV installations are at record levels, deployment is uneven across different building types, with commercial, industrial and m...

Presentation of the findings from our Solar Apartments project to a stakeholder workshop organised by the Centre for Energy and Environmental Markets (CEEM) at UNSW in December 2018. The project was funded by Energy Consumers Australia.

Since 2000 grid-connected solar photovoltaic systems have increased their worldwide cumulative capacity more than 300 times to reach 400 GW at the end of 2017. Another doubling is forecasted until 2020 and the further development is coupled with the question at what prices solar photovoltaic electricity can be provided and delivered to the customer...

Despite potential advantages of load aggregation and scale discounts, few of Australia's 2.3 million apartment residents are amongst the country's 1.8 million solar prosumers. However, embedded networks can be used to distribute rooftop photovoltaic generation to households if split incentives and regulatory barriers are overcome. We present a mode...

Key Findings Our analysis shows that Adelaide CBD could generate more than 25% of its electricity needs from its own rooftops, with the installation of 129 MW of solar on CBD rooftops. Using the average results from our 4 methods: • There is potential to install 129MW of solar photovoltaics on CBD rooftops • There is potential for 32 times the exis...

Key Findings: The Australian PV Institute analysis shows that Melbourne LGA could generate more than 12% of its electricity needs from its own rooftops, with the installation of 461 MW of solar on its rooftops. Using the average results from our 4 methods: - There is potential to install 461MW of solar photovoltaics on City of Melbourne rooftops...

There is significant potential for rooftop solar PV in Australia. Rooftop solar PV is a key energy technology because it is leading the transition to consumer uptake of low-carbon demand-side energy technologies, which are providing new opportunities for consumer engagement and new clean energy business models to emerge. However, there is a lack of...

Over 1.7 million Australian households have taken the opportunity to generate some of their own power and reduce both their electricity bills and carbon emissions by installing rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems on their homes. However, regulatory, technical, financial and organisational challenges have largely prevented Australia's growing number o...

There is significant potential for rooftop solar PV in Australia. Rooftop solar PV is a key energy technology because it is leading the transition to consumer uptake of low-¬‐carbon demand-¬‐side energy technologies, which are providing new opportunities for consumer engagement and new clean energy business models to emerge. However, there is a lac...

of Australians live in apartments, predominantly in urban centres, yet few of these have PV systems, despite high levels of PV deployment on separate and semi-detached residential buildings. Increased PV deployment on apartment buildings represents a valuable market opportunity for the PV industry, which would allow apartment dwellers to obtain the...

There is significant potential for rooftop solar PV in Australia. Rooftop solar PV is a key energy technology because it is leading the transition to consumer uptake of low-­‐carbon demand-­‐side energy technologies, which are providing new opportunities for consumer engagement and new clean energy business models to emerge. However, there is a lac...

Book Review: Domestic microgeneration: renewable and distributed energy technologies, policies and economics, edited by Iain Staffell, Daniel J. L. Brett, Nigel P. Brandon and Adam D. Hawkes, London, Taylor and Francis / Routledge, 2015

14% of Australians live in apartments, predominantly in urban centres, yet few of these have PV systems, despite high levels of PV deployment on separate and semi-detached residential buildings. Increased PV deployment on apartment buildings represents a valuable market opportunity for the PV industry, which would allow apartment dwellers to obtain...

This paper outlines opportunities for, and barriers to, increasing PV deployment on apartment buildings in Australia. With PV penetration reaching 40% of residential dwellings in some parts of the country, access to renewable energy for the 14% of Australians who live in apartments has lagged behind. Installation of PV on apartment buildings can he...

Key Questions in Radiology contains 300 multiple choice questions arranged as five examinations of 60 questions, each examination comprising 20 physics, 20 anatomy and 20 techniques questions. The format is based on that used for the examination of the Royal College of Radiologists (Part 1). The questions test the reader's knowledge of the core are...