Australia installed 249 MW of rooftop solar capacity in November 2020, a 7.32% increase compared to 232 MW in the same period last year, according to data released by the country’s Clean Energy Regulator (CER). In October 2020, the country installed 239 MW of rooftop solar capacity.

As of November 2020, Australia’s cumulative installed rooftop solar capacity stood at 12.97 GW. It had about 10.22 GW of cumulative installed rooftop solar capacity at the end of 2019, 7.97 GW at the end of 2018, and 6.47 GW at the end of 2017.

CER’s primary data, which may be updated next month, suggests that the country added 120.23 MW of rooftop solar capacity in December 2020.

The country has installed 2,659,839 rooftop systems as of December 31, 2020. In terms of small solar generation units, New South Wales led the way with 101,224 installations. It was followed by Queensland and Victoria, with the installation of 81,201 and 62,885 units, respectively. Tasmania and the Northern Territory installed the lowest number of units with 3,068 and 2,890 units, respectively.

Australia added 424 small wind generation units with an output amounting to 1.4 MW and 20 hydropower generation units with 51 kW output. It also installed 1,292,326 solar water heaters, of which 302,136 were air-source heat pumps.

Victoria installed the most solar water heaters with 30,196 installations, followed by Queensland with 10,864 units. Tasmania and the Northern Territory installed the fewest units with 1,074 and 811 installations, respectively.

According to CER’s data, the country installed 8,307 units of solar systems with concurrent battery storage capacity, of which 3,482 units were installed by the state of South Australia. New South Wales followed with 1,574 installations.

In November 2020, Mercom reported that Victoria would invest $797 million to help citizens cover their electricity bill costs and make homes more energy efficient. The Energy Minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, said the government would provide $191 million to expand its solar homes program.

Australia’s Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, Angus Taylor, said earlier that the government intended to invest $18 billion in low emission technologies over the next ten years to reduce carbon emissions.

Harsh Shukla is a staff reporter at Mercom India. Previously with Indian Express, he has covered general interest stories. He holds a Masters Degree in Journalism from Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune.

More articles from Harsh Shukla.