Origin tops install rates as rooftop rollout reaches 278 MW for month

Origin Energy emerged as Australia’s largest rooftop solar installer in August with new data showing the nation’s households and businesses bolted on more than 28,000 PV systems with a combined capacity of more than 278 MW.

September 9, 2024 David Carroll

2024 year-to-date national solar install volume leaderboard (0-100 kW)

Image: Solar Nerds, source - CER

New analysis by industry consultancy Solar Nerds shows 28,344 rooftop PV systems (0-100 kW range) with a combined capacity of 278,422 kW were installed across Australian homes and businesses last month.

Solar Nerds said Australia’s biggest energy utility, Origin Energy, installed 1,380 of those systems, delivering a cumulative generation capacity of 11,789 kW in the past month.

Sunboost, part of National Solar Energy Group (NSEG), was the second most prolific installer nationwide in August, delivering 807 rooftop PV systems with a combined capacity of 7,769 kW.

Origin subsidiary Sun Retail rounded out the podium with 4,801 kW of capacity spread across 429 rooftop installations.

While Sunboost was eclipsed by Origin in the monthly figures, Solar Nerds said it continues to lead the year-to-date volumes, having deployed 7,948 rooftop systems in 2024 with a combined capacity of more than 75.5 MW Australia wide.

Origin, with 2,876 systems totaling more than 27.3 MW, is second in the year-to-date stakes with Sun Retail third, having installed 2,827 rooftop systems with a cumulative capacity of more than 32.6 MW.

The performance by Origin and its subsidiary comes after the energy giant recently revealed that its virtual power plant (VPP) has grown to almost 1.4 GW across more than 392,000 connected assets, including rooftop solar systems, residential batteries, electric vehicles and connected hot water systems.

In its earnings report released late last month, Origin said that its VPP, Loop, had expanded by 70% to 1,385 MW of capacity under management in FY24, up from 815 MW at the end of FY23.

Solar Nerds said the majority of Origin’s installs during August were in the 6-10 kW segment, which accounted for 52% of its monthly volume. Another 39.3% were in the 10-20 kW category with 3.3% in the over 75 kW commercial range.

Most of Origin’s customers were in New South Wales (NSW), which accounted for 34.6% of its installs for the month. Victoria (28.4%), and Queensland (26.4%) also delivered significant volumes.

For Sun Retail, the biggest segment for installs for the month was the 10-20 kW range which accounted for 59.4% of its deployments. The 6-10 kW segment made up 21.5% of its volume while the over 75 kW segment was responsible for 6.2% of installations.

NSW was again the dominant state with 49.2% of installations, ahead of Queensland (33%) and Victoria (14%).

Sunboost’s primary market was the 20-30 kW commercial segment which accounted for 60.1% of its August volumes while the 6-10 kW range made up 34.2% of installs. Most installations were completed in NSW (42.4%), ahead of Queensland (21.9%) and Victoria (18.8%) respectively.

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