SunWiz reports residential battery installs at record high

Australian solar analyst SunWiz has released it Australian Battery Market Report for 2022 charting phenomenal growth in the residential storage segment. The report shows installations of residential batteries linked to solar systems in 2022 grew by 55% when compared to the previous year’s installations.

SunWiz said analysis of government, industry, and energy market operator data sources shows 47,100 residential energy storage systems were installed throughout the country in 2022, delivering a combined total of 589 MWh of energy storage and boosting the cumulative national tally of home energy storage systems grew to 1,920 MWh.

The number of solar arrays being installed with a battery is also becoming more commonplace, with SunWiz noting that one battery was installed for every seven solar systems added to the network last year, compared with one for every 12 new solar installations in 2021.

SunWiz Managing Director Warwick Johnston said about 180,000 Australian homes and businesses now have a battery system, noting that it is “still a long way off the 3 million homes with solar panels.”

“But many solar households are seeing the light, with one third of battery installations being retrofitted to existing solar systems,” he said.

Johnston attributed the surge in installation numbers to a range of factors including sharply rising energy prices, a desire to store excess solar energy and self-sufficiency reasons.

He said householders were installing home solar systems linked to batteries “in an effort to increase their energy independence, resilience and self-reliance.”

“This data shows Australian households and businesses are taking back power from the energy system by turning to cheaper, renewable sources of energy,” he said.

SunWiz said all states and territories had increases of battery installations in 2022, led by Victoria and New South Wales, each accounting for 27% of the market, followed by South Australia (16%) and Queensland (14%).

Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory were the highest growth markets in Australia last year, installing four times more batteries in 2022 than in 2021.

SunWiz expects the number of home energy storage systems will continue to rise in the coming years with “most manufacturers” expecting prices to hold steady or even decline.

For 2023, SunWiz is forecasting 10% growth for home energy storage systems totalling 650 MWh.

Despite that prediction, SunWiz acknowledged the return on investment for energy storage has progressively increased in the past 12 months. SunWiz analysis shows that the time required for households to recoup the costs of installing both solar panels and batteries has lengthened out to more than 11 years. By contrast, the payback period for customers installing solar alone was just 6.3 years at the end of 2022.