1/4 of Households In Australia Have Solar PV

Newly released data has confirmed that a second rooftop solar boom is currently happening around Australia.

Thanks to falling costs of technology and the increasingly volatile prices of electricity, almost one quarter of households in Australia have been found to have solar panels installed.

Roy Morgan has published a survey that indicated on average, 23.3 percent (almost one in four) Australian homes were owners of a “Home Solar Electric Panel”, as of March 2017.

How the states compare

The uptake of solar power systems was found to be highest in South Australia at a huge 32.8 per cent, followed closely by Queensland at 30.2 per cent. Western Australia wasn’t far behind at 26.6 per cent.

These numbers are pretty much on par with the findings released by SunWiz from May 2017 data.

This data suggested that Australian businesses and households were investing in rooftop solar PV systems at a rate not seen so high since 2012.

In the report from May 2017, Sunwiz stated that approximately 5.7GW in total of rooftop solar PV was installed on 1.7 million homes and businesses by the end of May.

This capped a record for the first five months of installs for any years seen in Australian history.

Over in Western Australia, the uptake of residential solar PV has subsequently resulted in a large reduction of both the timing and the scale of peak demand statewide.

Peak demand has been reduced by 265MW, or 7.2 per cent over the last summer.

New South Wales and Victoria saw a lower uptake of solar in households according to the Roy Morgan report.

17.7 per cent and 21 per cent respectively of households invested in solar PV in those states.

Furthermore, Tasmania has seen rates nearly as high as NSW solar penetration, with 17.3 per cent of home owners installing solar PV panels.

The research from Roy Morgan interestingly suggest that the given rate of uptake will begin to slow throughout the coming year, with just one per cent of Australian households claiming to have future plans to purchase or replace their solar panels over the next year.

The Author

Hi, my name is Erin and I am a journalist, content creator and editor working within the Public Relations department at Australian Solar Quotes. I am passionate about the continuously developing renewable energy industry. I am eager to educate others about the benefits and advancements of sustainable living, and I encourage you to join the conversation by leaving a comment below.