IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v267y2026ics0960148126005604.html

Free midday electricity in a Solar Sharer scheme: Should Germany follow Australia's lead?

Author

Listed:
  • Galvin, Ray

Abstract

Australia is to start a “Solar Sharer” program in July 2026, where providers will be obliged to offer free electricity to households over the midday period, when renewable electricity production is high. The aim is to shift consumption away from periods of high demand and low renewable electricity production, thereby reducing dependence on intermittent fossil fuel-generated electricity. Since Germany has a higher proportion of renewable electricity than Australia and a comparable demand curve, this study investigates whether it would also benefit from a Solar Sharer scheme. The study bases its electricity production and demand curves on data for the first half of 2025, by15-min intervals, and models curves for 2030 and 2035 based on projected increases in renewable electricity production and load. It finds ample scope for a Solar Sharer scheme over a substantial and increasing number of days of the year. The potential reductions in peak load for (the first half of) 2025 would have been 0.13 TWh, increasing to 7.00 TWh in 2030, 22.47 TWh in 2035, and continuing to increase in future years. The scheme should be introduced slowly, with 2-way feedback, while yet-unknown sociotechnical factors such as rebound effects and actual load-shift curves are investigated.

Suggested Citation

  • Galvin, Ray, 2026. "Free midday electricity in a Solar Sharer scheme: Should Germany follow Australia's lead?," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:267:y:2026:i:c:s0960148126005604
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2026.125735
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148126005604
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2026.125735?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:267:y:2026:i:c:s0960148126005604. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.