Graph of the Day: Australia’s strongest (and weakest) solar suburbs

Would the people of Salisbury, South Australia, please stand up. New data from solar installer Energy Matters has found that the unassuming suburb 25km north of Adelaide was highest adopter of solar among Australia’s capital cities in 2013, adding just over 2000 new rooftop PV installations over the year and saving more than $3.8 million in the first year of installation.

As the table below shows, the 2013 effort by Salisbury puts it in third place for total solar penetration, behind the Perth suburb of Mandurah (46%) and, in number one position, Brisbane’s Browns Plains (51%). (click on image to enlarge)

Interestingly, Sydney – where the feed-in tariff for rooftop solar PV remained comparatively high – is lagging far behind the rest of Australia in the solar adoption stakes, with its highest adopting suburb for 2013, Campbelltown, installing only 639 PV systems for the year.

Melbourne also appears to be straggling, with its highest-adopting suburb, Wyndham, reaching a total penetration of only 22 per cent after adding 1280 systems in 2013.

But the worst performer, according to the data, was Greater Sydney’s Kogarah/Rockdale, with only 128 new solar installations in 2013, and a installed rooftop PV penetration of 6 per cent.

According to Energy Matters, those remaining 94 per cent of Kogarah/Rockdale residents who didn’t install a solar system on their roofs have collectively missed out on $602,000 in energy bill savings in the first year.