Australia 5th in world in small scale rooftop solar PV in 2015

Australian homes and businesses added 713MW of small-scale rooftop solar in 2015, and spent some $2.2 billion doing so, according to the latest data.

The installations – which contrast to a big decline in large scale investments – means that Australia ranked 5th in the world in small scale solar installations in 2015. The 2015 effort meant that Australia now has 23.2 million solar panels installed, or the equivalent of one panel per person in the country.

Green Energy Markets released data this week showing that 713MW of rooftop solar of 100kW or less was installed during the year, the equivalent of 144,667 new systems on the rooftops of homes and businesses.

In a separate survey, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said Australians spent $2.2 billion on rooftop solar in 2015, ranking them fifth in the world, although a long way behind the number one rooftop solar country Japan ($US39 billion).

Queensland is still leading the market, with 195MW of rooftop solar installed during the year, although it was closely followed by NSW and Victoria. Western Australia and South Australia followed.

Commercial solar (more than 10kW) gained an increased share in 2015, accounting for 159MW of the installations during the year. More systems of greater than 100kW were also installed, on supermarkets, shopping centres, universities, schools, wineries and public buildings, but are not included in the small scale data.