Australian solar PV market charts worst start to year since 2012

January 2016 has marked the worst start to a year for solar PV growth in Australia since 2012, putting it well behind the global pace – and even behind its own depressed 2015 levels, a new report by solar analysts SunWiz has shown.

Despite falling prices, growing global momentum and strong voter support for rooftop solar in Australia, installations continue to slump, with volumes in January falling back across every significant size bracket excluding the 7-10kW range and for systems 2.5kW and less, as the chart below illustrates.

And registrations, said the report, “were off the (wrong end of) the chart,” at a total of 47MW for the month.

According to SunWiz – using data from SolarChoice – volumes also fell across all Australian states, with the exception of Western Australia, amounting to the worst January growth for the past few years.

Even the commercial market had been “lackluster” in January, the report said, with a fall in volumes across every key commercial size bracket for the month, with the only consolation being a “steady volume of 50-75kW systems.