Rooftop solar market cools in July as bumpy 2022 continues

Australia’s small-scale solar market has dipped in the month of July, with installations cooling off to a total of 219MW of panels installed on homes and businesses across the country, down from 226MW in June.

According to the latest monthly report from SunWiz, the contraction in the market in July, while small from month to month, puts the market 24% behind where it was at the same time last year, and somewhere between levels previously seen in 2020 and 2019.

SunWiz managing director Warwick Johnston says that, of the states, only Victoria and South Australia charted increases in solar installation volumes in July, while the usually strong markets of New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia fell.

In percentage terms, the increase was greatest in Victoria (18%) and the decrease greatest in Queensland (11%).

Notably, at the same time that installations in Queensland cooled off, the Sunshine State set a couple of new solar output records in July – in the middle of the winter – boosted by the state’s large rooftop PV resource.

As SunWiz’s monthly volume chart below shows, the past 12 months has been a bumpy ride for the market, buffeted by Covid, global supply shortages and cost increases.

High and unpredictable energy prices on the National Electricity, driven by global and local fossil fuel market factors, have not yet had the hoped effect of driving increased solar and battery uptake – at least not that we are seeing in installation numbers, just yet.