As the locals are tackling with the global warming and rising power bills, it has been a sunny year for  solar power sales in the Central West.

Australians have installed more than 100,000 rooftop solar panels over 2010 shows a report by Clean Energy Australia. This is more installations in one year than in the previous decade.

Central West Solar owner and manager Robert Biviano says that this year more locals have purchased solar power items than ever before and he said that “We definitely have had the biggest year in the last 10 years”.

He said that the biggest sellers in Orange in 2010 were the grid power connections for homes whereas locals wanted to take full financial benefits of solar power.

Orange City Council and local schools also looked to the skies to generate their power.

The council had installed solar panel systems in many of its buildings to reduce power costs and environmental impact said the Orange City Council communications and public relations manager Nick Redmond and he expects council will see big savings in time.

“We have just finished the [upgrades] so haven’t seen savings yet, but when we invested in the concept it demonstrated it would bring costs down so it was a good reason to make the buildings more energy efficient.” People received thousands of dollars in electricity credit as their solar panels continued to put energy into the grid said Mr Biviano.

After the federal government announced to phase out support for the household rooftop solar panels and solar credits from July next year to reduce the rising power prices, it seems that the solar power boom will slow down.

This means electricity retailers will not have to produce as many renewable energy certificates that are required to purchase from small systems, including solar panels, and will reduce the cost to consumers by around $12.

Mr Biviano expects solar power sales to plateau without the government’s “overly generous” initiatives.