Australia’s rooftop solar market ends 2024 on high

Australia’s rooftop solar market finished 2024 on a high, with about 309 MW of monthly installations delivering one of the best December totals in recent years and putting the national trend back on the up.

From pv magazine Australia

The latest small-scale solar data from Australian industry analyst SunWiz shows that the market for rooftop PV installations of up to 100 kW rose by 14% in month-on-month volume, increasing 38 MW from 271 MW in November to 309 MW in December.

SunWiz Managing Director Warwick Johnston said the result marked a positive end to the year, with the volume of rooftop solar installed in December above the totals recorded in the same month in 2021 and 2022, and only 600 kW less than the December 2023 volume.

Johnston said the spike in volume put the national trend back on the up with the figures well ahead of the straight-line average with the overall total for 2024 approximately 2% ahead of 2023 when about 3.17 GW of small-scale solar was installed on Australian homes and businesses.

Installations in New South Wales were a key driver for the increase, with the state delivering a 27% month-on-month increase.

While New South Wales accounted for the lion’s share of the monthly national increase, the data shows all states improved in December to finish 2024 above their straight line averages. Victoria volumes grew by 11% and Queensland increased by 8%.

Volumes in all segments above 10 kW improved on their previous month, with the report showing that December 2024 was the best month on record for STC-Commercial (15 kW to 100 kW) segments.

Johnston said there were large spikes recorded across each commercial sub-segment, including the  75 kW to 100 kW range, which delivered a 51% month-on-month increase.

The only decline came in the 4-6 kW residential range which was down slightly on the previous month.

Average system size continued to increase, hitting to a record high of 11.08 kW in December, up 0.6 kW on November.