Australia Installed 3 GW Rooftop Solar Capacity In 2024

Australia, one of the world’s largest rooftop solar PV markets, expanded its rooftop PV installed capacity by around 3 GW in 2024. Even though the annual additions were 7% less than the 3.2 GW reported for 2023, it was the 5th consecutive year when installations surpassed 300,000 units, according to a new Clean Energy Council (CEC) report.  

In 2024, Australians installed 300,375 new rooftop solar PV systems, 10% lower than the previous year. Of this, 159,011 rooftop PV systems worth 1.6 GW capacity came online during H2 2024. In cumulative numbers, the country had exceeded 4 million rooftop PV installations in November 2024 and 25.5 GW in total capacity.

By comparison, says the CEC, black and brown coal combined represented 21.3 GW of installed capacity in FY 2023-24.

Rooftop solar systems generated a combined 30,178 GWh of electricity last year, accounting for 12.4% of the country’s total power supply, increasing its share from 11.2% in 2023.

In its Rooftop solar and storage report July-December 2024, the CEC says New South Wales (NSW) maintained its leading position for the 2nd consecutive year with the highest installed capacity of 952 MW in 2024. Queensland followed next with 800 MW, and Victoria with 582 MW. 

While NSW has the highest level of total installed rooftop PV capacity at 7.1 GW, Queensland is the state with the highest number of installations at 1.1 million. Between themselves, these 2 states hold over half of all rooftop PV installed capacity in Australia.  

Con Hristodoulidis, CEC’s General Manager for Distributed Energy, said that Australian households are saving over AUD 6 billion/year on their energy bills, thanks to rooftop solar.  

Australia installed 74,582 household batteries in 2024 with most sales in NSW, followed by Victoria and Queensland, taking the cumulative to 185,798 home batteries. According to the Australian Energy Regulator, 27% of the customers with rooftop solar exported their energy back into the grid in 2024. However, the share of those with solar and battery or those who were able to export their energy back during peak times was only 4%.

At present, only 1 in 3 rooftop solar owners have a battery storage system installed, according to the CEC.

“Rooftop solar saves an average Aussie family $1500 on their annual bill, this almost doubles if you add a battery,” he added. “In a cost-of-living crisis, it’s clear the upfront cost of purchasing a home battery, which averages around $12,000 - $15,000, is a barrier to entry for many people, and this is why we need a national battery rebate scheme.”

The association demands a national rebate of up to AUD 6,500/household to slash energy bills under the ‘It’s time to back home batteries’ program. This will enable an additional 410,000 batteries to be installed for homes and small businesses by 2050, equivalent to 2.05 GW of installed storage capacity across the National Electricity Market (NEM).

The complete report is available for free download on the CEC website.