Policy & Planning

Rooftop solar installs head for 3.5GW in 2021 after record start to year

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Australia’s rooftop solar market is well and truly back in business, charting its second-best month – ever – for February 2021 and setting a cracking pace for installations that is already 27% ahead of the same time last year.

The latest data from industry analysts SunWiz shows a total of 285MW was installed by Australian homes and businesses over the month of February, as the industry snaps back into gear after a well-earned slow-down in January.

“The market starts with 28% higher registered volume in the first two months of the year compared to 2020,” said SunWiz managing director Warwick Johnston in his lately monthly report. “If this trend holds, 2021 will see larger capacity installed than 2020.”

Australia had a record year in 2020, adding nearly 3,000MW of rooftop solar (below 100kW) over the 12 months, despite – and in some cases because of – the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. A 28 per cent rise increase over the year would deliver more than 3.7GW over 2021.

To read the original version of this story on RenewEconomy sister site One Step Off The Grid, please click here.

Sophie Vorrath

Sophie is editor of Renew Economy and editor of its sister site, One Step Off The Grid . She is the co-host of the Solar Insiders Podcast. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.

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