Rooftop solar’s record run continues, as battery-charged PV market chalks up biggest half-year ever

Australia’s rooftop solar market continues its record-breaking run, riding the coat-tails of the federal Cheaper Home Batteries scheme to cap off its highest January–July tally on record for new installations.

According to the latest report from industry analyst SunWiz, Australian homes and businesses installed another 339.2 megawatts (MW) of new rooftop solar in July 2026 – not a record month, and 22 per cent below April’s all-time record of 432 MW, but comfortably above the long-run trend of about 285 MW.

Source: SunWiz

“2026 continues to be a record year for PV,” says SunWiz managing director Warwick Johnston. “Despite the slowdown from April, monthly volumes remain at record levels [and the] PV market continues to be heavily influenced by the Cheaper Home Battery Program.”

As you can see in the charts below, total volume of new capacity installed so far for the year is running 43 per cent ahead of the same time in 2025 and the total volume for July has charted a 6 per cent increase on the figures in June.

Source: SunWiz

The influence of the home battery rebate – which SunWiz says is prompting many households to either take the plunge into rooftop PV for the first time, or to upgrade their systems to better match the storage capacity of their discounted batteries – is evident in the data from the 10-15 kW system size segment.

SunWiz’s July data shows that the 10-15 kilowatt (kW) band remains the largest segment at 122.6 MW (~36% of the July total), followed by 6–8 kW at 60 MW and 15-20 kW at 45.3 MW.

“Though volumes of 10-15 kW PV systems have dropped from their peak, that segment has stabilised at highly elevated volumes,” Johnston says.

Combined 20–100 kW volume reached roughly 46 MW in July 2026, up from June’s 41 MW, but well off April’s peak of 64 MW.

On the larger end of the scale, the 75-100 kW segment posted a “notable” month-on-month gain to 13.4 MW, hinting at some movement from commercial and industrial customers, perhaps following the recent changes to the Peak Demand Reduction Scheme (PDRS) in NSW.

From state to state, SunWiz says growth was broad-based in July, with only the ACT and Tasmania pulling back slightly from their June numbers.

On system size, the national average remains at around the 10 kW mark in July, well below April’s peak of 11.3 kW and December’s high of 11.47 kW.

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