Australian rooftop solar installations reach 20 GW

It deployed 2.9 GW of rooftop solar last year.

Australia’s rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) system installations reached 20 gigawatts (GW), now accounting for 11.2% of the country’s electricity supply, according to the Clean Energy Council.

In 2023 alone, Australia installed 314,507 rooftop solar units with a 2.9 GW capacity, marking the second-biggest year of rooftop solar deployment.

“The sheer scale and pace of rooftop solar in Australia is unparalleled anywhere else in the world, due to an abundance of sunshine and the inherent benefits including lower energy bills and feed-in tariffs,” Clean Energy Council Policy Director of Distributed Energy Con Hristodoulidis said, adding that one in three households and businesses are installing rooftop solar.

New South Wales installed 970 megawatts of new rooftop solar systems, breaking the record for the highest annual installed capacity.

Queensland, meanwhile, exceeded one million rooftop solar installations in 2023, the first state in the country to do so.

“More than three million Australians understand that their rooftop solar systems are providing them with substantial savings, greater value and peace of mind.

“The recent announcement by the Federal Government of the $1 billion Solar Sunshot manufacturing support program is a positive sign for future progress, as we leverage world-leading research and innovation to make more solar products right here in Australia.”