What’s actually changing in Australian solar.

Latest stories

• Your workmanship warranty is only as durable as the company that wrote it — 6 August 2026 · Industry
  ASIC records show more than 500 companies have left the Australian solar industry since 2011. When an installer stops trading, the product warranties survive and the workmanship warranty generally does not. That asymmetry is the whole story.
• Wholesale power just hit a six-year low. Your bill did not. — 30 July 2026 · Market data
  Renewable generation supplied 42.1% of the NEM in Q2 2026 — a second-quarter record — while wholesale spot prices averaged $74/MWh, down 47% year on year and the lowest Q2 average since 2020.
• For one moment at noon, rooftop solar ran 61% of the grid — 22 July 2026 · Market data
  A new minimum operational demand record of 9,666MW was set at midday under clear skies. Operational rooftop solar capacity had reached roughly 15,091MW and was meeting 61% of underlying demand at that moment.
• Lab cells are hitting 34%. Your roof will get about 22%. That is fine. — 15 July 2026 · Technology
  German researchers set a new perovskite-CIGS tandem record in July, while perovskite-silicon tandems sit near 35% in the lab. Commercially available panels are around 22%. Here is why that gap exists and what it means for buying now.
• Three hours of free power a day — if you have a smart meter — 8 July 2026 · Policy & rebates
  From 1 July 2026, retailers are required for the first time to offer a default Solar Sharer plan: three hours of free electricity in the middle of the day for smart-meter customers. Here is who benefits and who should look closely.
• Everything that changed for solar households on 1 July — 2 July 2026 · Policy & rebates
  Default Market Offer prices fell in most regions, NSW feed-in benchmarks dropped to 3.4–6.5c, Victoria tightened its Solar Homes income cap to $150,000, and NSW expanded its VPP incentive to 50kWh batteries.
• Solar got 89% cheaper in a decade. Batteries are on the same curve. — 24 June 2026 · Technology
  The IEA describes solar as the cheapest source of electricity in history, with cost per kilowatt-hour down roughly 89% in a decade. Battery storage is following the same learning curve. Here is what that should and should not change about your timing.
• Virtual power plants hit 900MW. What does joining one actually pay? — 17 June 2026 · Market data
  VPP capacity across the National Electricity Market reached 900MW by Q1 2026, up from around 350MW in early 2024. Typical household earnings run $200–$1,000 a year — with South Australia consistently at the top of the range.
• Twice the inspections, same story: about 62% substandard — 10 June 2026 · Safety & standards
  As at 8 June 2026, the Clean Energy Regulator had inspected 2,642 battery installations from July 2025 onward: roughly 62% substandard, about 37% adequate and safe, and 0.83% — around 22 installs — unsafe.
• The battery boom is outrunning the people qualified to install it — 28 May 2026 · Industry
  Battery installs went from roughly 200 a day to more than 1,500. The accredited workforce did not grow at anything like that rate. Delays, rushed jobs and inspection failures are all downstream of the same bottleneck.
• The battery rebate was costed at $2.3bn. It is now $7.2bn. — 20 May 2026 · Policy & rebates
  The Cheaper Home Batteries Program was originally estimated at $2.3 billion and now carries a forecast of $7.2 billion over four years, having supported around 300,000 installations. Here is what a three-fold overshoot means for buyers.
• The battery rebate changed on 1 May. Here is what it is worth now. — 12 May 2026 · Policy & rebates
  From 1 May 2026 the Cheaper Home Batteries rebate dropped from roughly $300 per kWh to about $244, moved to six-monthly step-downs, and began tapering support for larger systems. What that means for your quote.
• April beat March: 442MW of rooftop solar, nearly double last year — 6 May 2026 · Market data
  A record 442MW of small-scale PV was installed across Australia in April 2026 — 31% up on March and almost double April 2025. The driver is batteries: bigger storage needs bigger generation to fill it.
• Rooftop solar is now 15.8% of Australia’s electricity supply — 1 May 2026 · Market data
  Renewable generation supplied 46.5% of the National Electricity Market in Q1 2026, up from 42.5% a year earlier. Rooftop solar averaged 4,090MW, accounting for 15.8% of total supply — the single largest contribution from a source nobody centrally planned.
• More than 60% of inspected home battery installs were substandard — 21 April 2026 · Safety & standards
  The Clean Energy Regulator inspected 1,278 battery installations in the rebate’s first year and found more than 60% substandard, with 1.2% unsafe. The gap between those two words matters — and so does the reason the number is that high.
• Record March — and the average home battery is now around 40kWh — 9 April 2026 · Market data
  Australia registered 341MW of small-scale solar in March 2026, up 19% on the month, with battery capacity up 35%. Average battery size reached about 40kWh — roughly four times what a typical household needs overnight.
• The “sun tax” explained, without the outrage — 25 March 2026 · Policy & rebates
  Two-way export pricing — the so-called sun tax — is now live in NSW and South Australia. It charges for midday exports and rewards evening ones. For most solar households the net effect is modest; for battery owners it can be positive.
• Battery rebate claims now need geotagged photos of your labelling — 4 March 2026 · Policy & rebates
  From 1 March 2026, installers claiming battery certificates must submit clear, geotagged and time-stamped photos of critical labelling. It is an administrative change with a very practical target: the most commonly failed inspection item.
• V2G works. The paperwork is what’s holding it back. — 19 February 2026 · Technology
  Fifty-one stakeholders from 31 organisations met in February to work out why vehicle-to-grid is taking so long in Australia. The answer wasn’t technical: standards, certification pathways, market rules and consumer protections are not yet aligned.
• Your solar rebate got smaller on 1 January. Here is by how much. — 5 February 2026 · Policy & rebates
  The small-scale technology certificate deeming period stepped down to five years on 1 January 2026, cutting a typical 6.6kW system’s rebate from roughly $2,100 to about $1,700–$1,900. Here is how the mechanism works.