Last month Australian households and businesses installed a total solar capacity of 98MW on their rooftops, making it one of the highest months ever recorded in Australia.
The August performance extends its record level of the-year-to-date performance, taking the country’s grand total of small-scale rooftop solar PV panels above the 6GW target.
According to recently released August data for the rooftop solar in Australia, SunWiz, the industry analyst claims the “installation party” still continues, and is happening simultaneously across all the Australian states, with the exception of WA.
“Our Tally is currently sitting at 6.5GW of PV, with 6GW of that being sub-100kW,” the SunWiz Australian PV Market Insights report for August read in part.
“August 2017 was the biggest ever August for registration volume,” the report says. “We remain 47 percent ahead of the same time last year, and this continues to be the best ever start to the year,” placing the market’s performance three months ahead of both 2015 and 2016.
In the same month, there was a notable recovery in its commercial capacity in all the key categories (except the top 10-20kW category which remained constant). The report also shows that the total proportion of commercial market in WA eased back, while Victoria’s grew to lead with 40 percent.
August was also the second best ever recorded month for New South Wales, with total installed capacity for the month hitting 24MW, slightly below its highest ‘ever’ recorded volume. The report also shows growth in the commercial break within the 50-75kW bracket.
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Queensland’s solar capacity recovered to 26MW, with the 6-10kW category recording an increasing share, eventually putting the Sunshine State ahead of the YTD with 58 percent for the same period last year.
Victoria increased to 18MW with a strong growth in commercial PV volume to account for 40 percent of the total volume. According to the report, the state’s 75-100kW segment is taking the lead, and as a result, the average solar system size increased to 6.8kW.
A total of 9MW of solar energy was installed in South Australia. The average system size remained steady, placing the state at 42 percent ahead of last year’s YTD.
On the other end, Western Australia’s volume hit 16MW to become the state’s best-ever monthly volume and best ever year to date. This year’s YTD is 52 percent ahead of last year’s figures.
With regards to the recent drop in STC prices, SunWiz claims all systems will be affected equally, “meaning cheaper priced systems face a greater percentage price increase, which should narrow the percentage price gap with high-quality systems.
“Countering this is the ‘what I can afford for a fixed budget’ which will push people further towards cheaper (or smaller) systems,” the report states.
