About 31,000 batteries were added to the grid in 2020, with 9% of new household PV systems including storage.
More than 31,000 batteries were installed in homes around the country during 2020, a 20% increase from 2019, according to analysis from solar and storage market analyst SunWiz.
Almost 110,000 batteries are installed in homes and commercial premises. The total also includes large-scale “big” batteries announced by state governments and private companies.
South Australians are leading the trend of battery ownership, with just over a quarter (26.0%) of all battery installations in 2020 occurring in the state, despite its relatively small proportion of Australia’s population.
Victoria and NSW were close behind with around a quarter (25.1% and 24.7% respectively) of all battery installations. Queensland accounted for 9.6% of all batteries installed, despite being home to 20.1% of Australians and having a high proportion of solar panel installations.
“It was a surprisingly good year for battery installations in Australia,” said SunWiz managing director Warwick Johnston, “Home battery systems proved particularly popular in South Australia where there is such high demand from homeowners that the state government had to reduce its subsidy in order to avoid overheating the market and exhausting available government funds too quickly.
“In Victoria, the popularity of solar batteries for homes was so high the state government subsidy allocations were exhausted within minutes of each release,” he said.
Roughly 9% of new home solar systems installed in 2020 included a battery, down from 12% in 2017 but an improvement on 8% in 2019.
The average battery installed last year was 10.9kWh.
“State and federal governments can play a role by ensuring battery rollouts are safe and smart, and demonstrating to the public that batteries are a legitimate solution for homes, communities and electricity networks,” Johnston said.
SunWiz forecasts an additional 33,000 home battery installations in 2021 plus an increase in grid-scale storage.