The epic world-first Solar Sharer Offer program, granting three hours of free electricity to Australian households thanks to a surplus of solar power around midday, has BEGUN! It started July 1, 2026, from 11 AM to 2 PM in New South Wales and southeast Queensland and 12 to 3 PM in South Australia. A similar program will begin in the state of Victoria this October, and other states may soon join in.
This is an ever bigger deal than it looks, as Australia is also a world leader in home battery adoption, so many homes can now fill up their battery for free during the three Solar Sharer hours and then use it to power the rest of the day!
It’s a bold new paradigm, made possible thanks to Australia’s accelerating build-out of clean energy. The last Australian financial year (July 2025 through June 2026) saw a new record-high in clean energy development, with 9.1 GW of new solar, wind, and battery capacity coming online. That’s more than double the 4.4 GW in the previous financial year!
There’s a growing movement to unleash solar power abundance in the United States as well! In 2026 so far, nine states have passed permitting reform bills of some kind expected to benefit clean energy build-outs to some degree, including major wins like Virginia and Illinois preventing local governments from passing nonsensical blanket bans on solar and Washington and Oregon streamlining their lengthy permitting processes as well as smaller-scale bills like Alabama allowing potential future conversion of oil and gas wells to geothermal. Only one state (Utah) has moved in the other direction this year, passing a restriction on use of state tax credits for solar on farmland. That’s a big shift in the right direction since 2025, when just six states made it easier to build renewables and six other states made it harder.
Australia is at the leading edge of an incredible new age of abundant, clean, and free electricity. U.S. state leaders must prioritize making it as easy as possible to build new solar power and grid-scale batteries — it’s the biggest win/win in policy today, simultaneously stabilizing the grid, cleaning the air, and making electricity cheaper! We need an ultra-streamlined permitting process for solar and batteries plus Virginia-style state overruling of nonsensical local bans.
Your Dose of Climate Hope is written by Sam Matey-Coste for Climate Action Now.
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