Home battery installs jump 55 pct as solar households turn to storage in record numbers

Just under 50,000 battery energy storage systems were installed in households around Australia over the course of 2022, a new annual record and a 55 per cent increase on the numbers in 2021, new data has shown.

Solar analyst SunWiz says 47,100 home batteries were added to the national total in 2022, which by the end of the year had reached 180,000 – the equivalent 1920MWh of energy storage capacity or nearly 2GWh.

SunWiz says home batteries were installed in record numbers in every state and territory in Australia, except for South Australia, as power prices hit record new highs.

“Australians responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Covid, the energy price crisis and worsening climate fuelled disasters by installing home solar systems linked to batteries,” says SunWiz managing director Warwick Johnston.

It amounts, Johnston says, to “an effort to increase their energy independence, resilience and self-reliance.

“This data shows Australian households and businesses are taking back power from the energy system by turning to cheaper, renewable sources of energy.

“Homes and businesses set up with solar and storage are guaranteed lower power bills which will be a relief to many as we go into winter,” he said.

And while the total number of home batteries installed is still it’s still a long way off the 3 million homes in Australia with rooftop solar panels, Johnston says it’s becoming more common-place for new solar installs to include a battery.

“There was one battery energy storage system installed for every seven solar power systems installed last year [in 2022]. This is up from one in 12 in 2021.”

On top of that, he says existing solar households are “seeing the light,” with one-third of battery installations being retrofitted to existing solar systems.

All of this said, SunWiz says home batteries remain at low market penetration, between 1.6%-5.3% of total accessible market, which Johnston says demonstrates we are still transitioning from innovators – the first 2.5% – into the early adopters.

SunWiz says it expects growth of another 10 per cent in 2023, adding another 650MWh of distributed storage capacity.