NSW takes lead on rooftop solar as CSIRO maps record 2020 data

It is a well established fact that 2020 was a bumper year for rooftop solar installations in Australia, with 283,991 systems installed on homes and businesses around the country – a total of roughly 3GW in new capacity and a roughly one-third increase on 2019 installs.

But a new report put together by CSIRO’s Australian Housing Data Portal, using solar data from a range of sources including the Clean Energy Regulator, has drilled down into how many panels where installed in which states and suburbs, and come up with some interesting results and a nice looking map.

As the chart below shows, the states with the highest number of solar PV systems installed in 2020 were: New South Wales (with 108,922), Queensland (86,912), Victoria (71,798), Western Australia (47,653) and South Australia (35,599).

Within NSW, the postcodes that led the charge to solar included 2756 and 2155 – both in Sydney’s mid-outer north-west, and 2570, which takes in suburbs in Sydney’s outer south-west.

The best-performing postcode in all of Australia for the year, however, was in Victoria: 3064, which takes in the northern Melbourne suburbs of Craigieburn, Donnybrook, Mickleham and Roxburgh Park, with 2484 systems.

This was followed by another Vic postcode, 3029, which includes the western suburbs of Hoppers Crossing, Tarneit, Truganina, where 2435 systems were installed. And third was also Victoria, with 3977 – the south-eastern suburbs of Cranbourne, Sandhurst and Skye – with 2036 systems.

“The solar PV installation data shows how quickly PV systems have been taken up across Australia and the increasing size of the PV arrays,” said Michael Ambrose, a senior experimental scientist at CSIRO who is part of a team that tracks the progress in residential sustainability efforts.

“Australia is one of the sunniest places on the planet,” Ambrose added. “We lead the world in PV capacity on a per capita basis at 591 watts per person which is almost eight times the worldwide average.”