Solar power has hit a near-record year for residential installations with Australian rooftop solar power systems installing 11% faster in 2023 than in 2022.

In the 2024 Annual SunWiz Australian PV Report, 2.5GW of residential solar power were installed last year (equivalent to 6.1 million average-sized solar panels) along with 0.9GW of commercial rooftop systems (respectively 4% and 0.2% less than the record year, 2021).

“Despite household and business budgets being hit hard by inflation and interest rate increases, solar power systems fell in price in 2023. Solar power remains the most popular way of reducing electricity bills, and it rapidly pays for itself,” SunWiz managing director Warwick Johnston says.

“With more than 3.7 million solar power systems installed, Australia remains the world’s leading country for per-capita uptake of rooftop solar power. There are more than three solar panels installed for every Australian.”

By contrast, Australia’s overall solar industry, including solar farms, contracted last year for the first time since 2013. The amount of new solar power installed in Australia in 2023 was 4.6GW in total. This was lower than in 2022 (5.6GW) and its lowest level since 2019.

The downturn occurred primarily due to reduced numbers of large-scale solar farms being energised. Ten new solar farms totalling 1.1GW started producing energy in 2023, a 60% reduction on the 2.9GW from the previous year, and the worst year for solar farms since before their rollout began in earnest in 2018.