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| Tue, 2nd Jun 2020 16:44:00 |
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Australian rooftop PV market continues to thrive |
Australia's rooftop PV fleet continues to grow in the face of uncertainty surrounding the outbreak of the pandemic, posting another big month above 200 MW. Mega-household solar systems are growing in popularity, but retailers and installers can see the storm clouds gathering.
The Australian rooftop PV market continues to thrive with no clear sign yet of a Covid-19-induced slowdown. According to the small-scale technology certificate (STC) data, rooftop PV posted its eighth consecutive month above 200 MW, with 222MW registered in May.
The STC data compiled by Green Energy Markets (GEM) show that while kilowatts are down relative to March and April, they are 23% up on May last year. GEM's Director, Analysis and Advisory, Tristan Edis says he has delved down into the data on system sizes to see if bigger commercial systems are dropping off but found they also show a pattern of strong growth.
There was 43 MW of commercial solar capacity registered in May, which is up 26% year-on-year. "What's really interesting is the increasing popularity of the mega-household solar system greater than 10kW," Edis tells pv magazine Australia. "These now represent the second largest segment of the Australian solar market after the 6-7kW system size category. They represent 15% of all residential capacity registered so far this year."
Unperturbed by the Covid-19 outbreak, the Australian rooftop PV market was forecast to smash all previous records in 2020, approaching 3 GW of sub-100kW systems. Despite two consecutive monthly falls, the STC market has not revealed any significant slowdown as yet. However, an industry survey has found that the spread of rooftop PV is likely to slow down with confidence and many household incomes taking a hit.
The survey carried out in early April revealed that around 50% of respondents have seen customer inquiries decline by between 25-50%, with a further 20% reporting that new leads have dried up completely. Such a level of activity would represent a 50% contraction in the installation rate to around 100 MW per month.
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