Australian PV market hits July high, boosted by commercial solar

Australia’s solar PV market notched up a good month in July, with a major up-tick in volume driven largely by growth in Queensland, New South Wales and Victorian markets, and particularly due to a surge in the commercial (30-100kW) markets in these states.

According to the latest report from solar industry analysts SunWiz, a total of 69MW of solar PV was added for the month, which the report notes is not much to boast about in comparison to 2014 levels, but marks the highest monthly level for 2015 so far, and offers hope of a possible turn around in the fortunes of the market.

Still, 2015 is well short of 2014, the report says, with a total of 419MW registered for the year to July, which is 10 per cent less than this time last year, the report says.

As noted, the trend towards commercial solar continues, with 75+kW systems being particularly popular in July. As the graph below illustrates, commercial solar is now 30 per cent of the solar PV market in Australia, and growing – mostly in the 10-30kW market in the major states, like NSW and South Australia.

“NSW is the go to state for commercial PV, though volumes have fallen back from their peak,” the report says. “Commercial volume is sliding in Queensland and SA, but appears to have turned the corner. Victorian commercial volume is building to be number 2 nationally.”