Australia’s biggest coal grid sets rooftop solar pace as market reboots for 2024

Australian households and businesses installed a further 272MW of solar PV on their rooftops over the month of March, new data shows, setting market growth just slightly ahead of the same time last year.

According to the latest monthly report from solar market analysts SunWiz, the rooftop PV market is still in the process of ramping up in the new year, with the early Easter break putting an extra dampener on growth.

SunWiz managing director Warwick Johnston says new installation volumes held steady over March, with varying increases and decreases across states and different segments of the market.

“State volumes are a mixed bag with half the states improving while the other half contracting,” Johnston says in the report. “New South Wales volumes improved while Queensland and Victoria contracted.”

Johnston says the 6% increase in installs in NSW – which remains the state grid with the biggest coal generator capacity – played a big role in holding market volumes steady as Queensland and Victoria slacked off.

“Segment ranges also varied in their monthly changes,” he adds. “Notably the residential range held steady while the lower end of the STC-commercial range (15-50kW) improved and the upper end (50-100kW) contracted.”

Overall, the 272MW of new rooftop systems ranging up to 100kW recorded in March puts the year-to-date around 3 per cent ahead of the same time last year.

Average rooftop solar system size has also held steady, at 9.64kW in March 2024.