Not directly related to Alex's question, but an interesting statistic I learnt
today about the numbers of of solar PV installations in Australia compared to
the U.S. which some readers with a thirst for trivia might be interested
to know as well.
This 19 Dec 2018 article at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers Spectrum magazine web site discusses a neural network system
at Stanford University that searches satellite images for solar panels
installed in the 48 contiguous U.S states, from home rooftop to utility-owned
solar plant farms.
Their conclusion,
1.47 million solar installations in the 48 contiguous U.S states,
which was higher than previous estimates of 1.02 million.
Reference :-
https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-...s-solar-panels
By comparison, according to the Australian PV Institute and based on
the Clean Energy Regulators database of solar PV generators, which
represents all the systems that have been installed under the Commonwealth
Government’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme,
as at 30 Sept 2018,
there are 1.95 million PV installations in Australia.
Reference :-
http://pv-map.apvi.org.au/analyses