Australia installs 71MW solar in April, continues record start to year

sunwiz solar april

Australia installed another 71MW of small scale rooftop solar (systems under 100kW) in April, extending its record start to the year as households and business continued to respond to high electricity prices, easing solar module prices and the rapid falls in battery storage.

According to industry statistician Sunwiz, installations from the first four months have totalled 301MW, giving it the best result for the first four months of the year, even though the number for April fell slightly behind April last year due to the Easter break and Anzac Day.

“In light of those holidays, 71 MW is a remarkable volume,” Sunwiz director Warwick Johnston says.

sunwiz 2017 appril cumulative totals
Dashboard shows registration volume in YTD based on registration year.

Queensland continued to lead the way, with 18MW of rooftop solar installations, followed by NSW (17MW) and Victoria and Western Australia (both 13MW)

But WA, where consumers face even bigger jumps in electricity charges because of the likelihood that a government subsidy will be removed, remained the big mover with a 64 per cent jump in installations in the year to date to 56MW.

 

 

Comments

7 responses to “Australia installs 71MW solar in April, continues record start to year”

  1. trackdaze Avatar
    trackdaze

    Lets presume for a moment 10% are including battery so 25Mwh already for the year then?

    1. stephan011 Avatar
      stephan011

      Powerwall2’s just showing up in the market, it’s going to climb higher with better, cheaper options.

  2. GlennM Avatar
    GlennM

    Looking good…
    Hopefully a record year is brewing. Although there is unlikely to be an end of year FIT rush. Underlying growth based on economics is better than the boom/bust of subsidies though as it is likely to be more even and sustained.

    WA Govt need to tell their people that the $300m subsidy on power is going to go away one way of the other that will then boost sales.

    Perhaps they could do a 10 year phaseout. Year one 270 million power subsidy 30 million battery/solar subsidy, next year. Next year 240 million power and 30 million Solar battery etc so the subsidy is slowly used to boost self powering and reduced overall to help the taxpayers..

  3. George Darroch Avatar
    George Darroch

    It’s remarkable that Australian households create the equivalent of a 200MW power station every single year (assuming 20% capacity factor). Queensland’s growth shows no sign of slowing, and WA is growing very quickly.

  4. Bristolboy Avatar
    Bristolboy

    Impressive figures once again from Australia. This indicates how pathetic the approximately 40MW of UK capacity installs across January-April 2017 (eg 10MW per month”) really is, even accounting for the fact the UK typically has lower irradiance and a higher building density.

    1. George Darroch Avatar
      George Darroch

      Australia has one of the largest rooftop solar markets in the world. It’s truly remarkable.

  5. John Avatar
    John

    Electricity prices said to rise by about 20% from 1 July 2017. In QLD net fit will rise for regional installs to reflect wholesale price. Benefit from self use of solar generation will rise. Cannot see a downside for solar installs. Their may be an avalanche. Brace yourself. ????

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