Online payment and national stock availability expands access to the latest products at the click of a button
Australian solar retailers and installers made great gains in 2023. Sub-100kW installations finished just shy of 3.15GW in 2022, second only in volume to the record-setting year of 2021 by only 65MW.
It’s very good going, particularly considering cost-of-living pressures and increasing interest rates. And it speaks to the value that so many Aussie households and small businesses can see in rooftop solar. In fact, it’s now widely understood that when things are tight, solar can be a powerful tool by which homeowners can make savings on their energy bills.
With 2023 now behind us, we can review the full year of rooftop solar installation data and see what it can tell us about our industry. This post draws on data provided by Green Energy Markets (GEM), a leading STC clearing house, and the analysis of Tristan Edis, GEM’s director of Analysis and Advisory.
The December 2023 figures from GEM show that the year saw “small scale generation unit” installations, coming in at 3,144MW – only slightly shy of the 3,209MW achieved in 2021. The result represents a 14% increase on 2022.
December was a particularly strong month for rooftop solar installations. 320MW was installed in the month, second only to the record 325MW achieved in November 2023.
Digging further into the GEM data, it’s encouraging to see continuing growth in the small residential segment, while residential installations remain strong. 2,526MW of residential, or sub-15kW, systems were installed in 2023 – up 11% on 2022.
Residential system sizes are also increasing. The average residential rooftop system was 7.96kW on a national basis, clearing 8kW in many states.
New South Wales remains the powerhouse of Australian rooftop solar. The state now accounts for 35% of sub-100kW installations nationally. In 2023, NSW reached 835MW of rooftop installations – surpassing 2021, when 805MW was installed.
Ease of access
To meet this strong demand and serve installers right around the country, BayWa r.e. Solar Systems has integrated new features to its online Solar Shop. In particular, a payment gateway has been added, allowing installers to select and pay for solar system components online.
The new gateway function also includes a freight calculator, making fully delivered prices available at the time of purchase. The feature also integrates with BayWa r.e.’s Australian national inventory, so product availability can be traced for when and where it is needed.
While these features may be an incremental improvement, they represent a major development in the way in which Aussie installers can access the latest PV components. BayWa r.e.’s Solar Shop now operates more like a trading platform, offering additional functionality to existing customers, and allowing installers new to us to log on, check out and complete their installations with ease.
The integration of the payment gateway is the right step for the Australian rooftop solar marketplace at this point of its development. The installation figures for 2023 demonstrate that, despite macroeconomic headwinds, solar and increasingly energy storage is becoming mainstream. This means that the access to high performance and highly reliable products when and where required is a necessity.
Global trend
The evolution of BayWa r.e.’s Solar Shop is part of a wider trend. Internationally, new companies are entering the solar marketplace providing innovative service and distribution offerings. It’s a sign of solar’s robust value to end consumers and will pave the way for accelerating installations for new customers and in more parts of the world.
But it doesn’t come without risk. A rooftop solar system is still very much a long-term investment. While payback times for a residential system in Australia are short, long-term reliability remains extremely important. As an industry, we should be mindful that word-of-mouth is still the most powerful marketing tool we have. While one household’s positive experience of solar will encourage others to have a system installed on their roof, bad news usually travels faster.
In terms of economic payback period, SunWiz calculates that recent cost reductions have resulted in the average solar system in Australia paying for itself, in energy savings, within five years – as reported by pv magazine Australia. This is great news, but we mustn’t lose sight of the long-term nature of our offering; PV modules that provide affordable, clean electricity for 20 years or more.
Baywa r.e. Solar Solutions is proud of its role in enabling the robust uptake of rooftop solar by Australian homes and businesses. The modules, inverters, and racking systems on offer are designed and tested to operate safely and efficiently over their lifetime. With homeowners increasingly engaging with home energy production and consumption like never before, inverter accessories and EV chargers can provide increased value and allow installers to serve their customers better.
And with residential battery installations on the verge of replicating the success achieved by rooftop solar, having access to high-quality energy storage devices is increasingly important. Battery safety is of the utmost importance, in terms of both product and installation quality.
While not setting records across the board, 2023 demonstrated rooftop PV’s place as a key pillar in Australia’s new energy economy. The new features on the BayWa r.e. Solar Systems Solar Shop will continue to broaden access to installers right around the country. Log on, peruse, select, and check out; and let’s make 2024 another outstanding year for rooftop PV.