Rooftop solar resumes upward march, but what’s going on with NSW?

One Step Off The Grid

Australia’s rooftop solar market has dusted itself off after a holiday-related dip in April to chart a more than 5 per cent month-on-month increase and a much more impressive 24% lead over the same time last year for registered volume.

All up at the end of May the total installed for 2021 so far sits at around 1.4GW – well on track to reach a new record of more than 3GW by year’s end.

From a monthly perspective, however, the latest data from industry analysts SunWiz reports a respectable 5.26% increase on the volume of new installations from April (266MW) to May (280MW), with all states and territories charting an increase in volume except for Tasmania, which held steady, and NSW, whose installs decreased.

As illustrated in a bonus chart from SunWiz this month (below), NSW’s May figures are the “most worrying,” even if they are in the context of the state having the second-highest growth rate in the country.

The SunWiz data on commercial rooftop solar installs offers some clues to the downward trend in NSW. While most states saw growth over the month in the 30-100kW segment, NSW charted a decrease, as it also did in the 15-30kW range.

Elsewhere in the country, South Australia’s straight-line trend is also problematic, Johnston notes, because for that famously rooftop solar friendly state it represents a market contraction. And in Western Australia, growth is negligible.

For more on this story, please read the original story at our sister-site, One Step Off The Grid and also you can listen to the podcast interview here.