Rooftop solar installation records tumble again in November, as NSW leads the way

Australia’s rooftop solar market just keeps on punching, delivering “incredible” growth of more than 10 per cent from October to November and setting a new record to round out a pretty horrendous year.

The latest data from PV market analysts SunWiz shows Australian households and businesses installed another 277MW of solar across the country for the month of November, topping the 252MW of new capacity installed in October.

On top of the new national record for November, New South Wales, Western Australia and the ACT all set their own records for total installations over the month, while Victoria, now almost completely back to “Covid-normal” also noticed a significant rise.

New South Wales led the pack with a record 87MW of new rooftop solar capacity installed for the month, while Western Australia added a new high for that state of 32MW, and ACT a more modest record of 5MW.

Victoria, meanwhile, is almost back to its pre-lockdown levels of installations, with a total of 56MW installed for the month.

“After a good rise in the capacity installed nationally, we remain 38% ahead of the same time last year,” said SunWiz managing director Warwick Johnston.

Sunwiz data shows that people are installing more panels on their roofs, with the average solar system size increasing to 8.2kW – another new record for November.

“Most of the system sizes increased in November compared to October, noticeably seen in 6.3kW to 8kW system size,” said Johnston.

The commercial market remained steady for the month, with further growth in the 10-15kW segment, which has been growing steadily since May, according to SunWiz.

In New South Wales and Victoria, the 15-30kW commercial solar segment saw some growth, while others remained steady, the report says.