Two Australian renewable energy experts, Orkestra Energy and SunWiz, have this week launched the C&I Solar Industry Census to uncover critical insights and challenges within the commercial solar industry.
The C&I Solar Industry Census is the first joint initiative undertaken between the two firms as part of a new strategic partnership and will survey energy companies across Australia’s commercial and industrial (C&I) sector to uncover critical market insights, operational challenges, and emerging opportunities.
SunWiz, a leading distributed solar and storage consultancy, and Orkestra Energy, a clean energy software provider, hope to take the shared knowledge and formulate a comprehensive industry report that provides actionable intelligence that helps shape the future of commercial solar and battery deployment across Australia.
Both companies, headquartered in Victoria, believe there is a need for what they describe as “more granular, operationally-focused intelligence” that is specific to Australia’s commercial solar sector. This will build on SunWiz’s annual Australian PV and Battery reports.
“SunWiz has a long history of providing key market insights to the solar industry through our reports and analysis, but we’ve identified a gap in understanding the operational challenges and customer dynamics specific to the C&I segment,” said Warwick Johnston, founder of SunWiz.
“By combining our market intelligence expertise with Orkestra’s success in commercial battery project evaluation software, we can build a more complete view of the challenges and opportunities facing the commercial solar industry. This will help us continue delivering customer-focused tools and insights that support greater deployment of solar and batteries.””
The Census will seek input from across the C&I sector, including solar installers, EPCs, energy retailers, consultants, and asset managers to create a detailed picture of customer motivations, service adoption patterns, operational gaps, business confidence levels, and emerging growth opportunities.
In addition to contributing their experiences and challenges to a potentially valuable industry resource, all respondents to the C&I Solar Industry Census will receive a copy of the survey report.
“This census marks an exciting milestone for our new partnership with SunWiz,” said Chris Cooper, co-CEO and co-founder of Orkestra Energy.
“As industry leaders, we’re uniquely positioned to gain deep insights into what’s driving C&I solar. Orkestra gives us unparalleled visibility into project feasibility trends, equipment preferences, customer needs and optimisation strategies, while SunWiz brings their established expertise and wealth of knowledge around the Australian solar market.
“This partnership makes perfect sense – together we can deliver insights that will benefit the entire industry, and we’re excited about the potential for further collaboration as we continue to support the growth of the C&I solar and storage sector.”

