Independent science-based think tank the Climate Council suggests in a new report, Seize the Sun, the total potential rooftop solar capacity in Australia is 103 GW, or four times more than currently installed, and 1.5 times the capacity of utility-scale electricity generators in the National Electricity Market (NEM).
Over 3.6 million Australian homes a have rooftop solar adding up to 23 GW of clean renewable energy capacity now, where the estimated current capacity is split between owner-occupier properties (17 GW), private rentals (1.5 GW) and 4.7 GW on commercial, industrial and public buildings.
Solar installations on vacant land at industrial facilities were not included in the reports findings, but would add more capacity.
For owner-occupier homes and a small percentage of apartments, the Climate Council found the total potential from available and appropriate roof space is 44.4 GW, or 27.4 GW more than is currently installed.
For private rentals, the possibilities are 12.6 GW more and for social housing, 1.9 GW, but the largest potential is seen in the commercial and industrial sectors.
The report says if all new commercial buildings from May 2025 installed rooftop solar, another 1.2 GW of capacity would be generated by 2030.
Across all sectors, Australia has the potential to more than double rooftop solar capacity in the next six years.
Image: Climate Council
The report identifies five key opportunities to propel rooftop solar beginning with encouraging more owner-occupied houses to take up solar, which has seen the greatest six-fold increase in capacity over the past decade, from 5 GW in 2024, to today’s 23 GW.
A Climate Council analysis of energy consumers found with 73% of Australians who don’t yet have rooftop solar say they want to it and almost three-quarters of Australians support the federal government pushing policies to drive a new wave of solar and storage installations now.
Despite the advantage of including solar in new home designs and the cost of solar panels dropping globally, two-thirds of new houses are still built without rooftop solar, and modelling finds 537,000 new or substantially rebuilt homes, could potentially have panels by 2030, unlocking a further 2.7 GW of generation capacity.
Adding solar to the existing 260,000 detached and semi-detached social housing dwellings, representing 3% of houses, could unlock 1.7 GW of capacity by 2030.
A fifth recommendation is to unlock the benefits of solar for more renters and apartment dwellers using strategies like community solar banks, neighbourhood batteries, and installations on new rental buildings.
Current installed rooftop solar capacity looks set to overtake the total amount of coal generation capacity around Australia by the end of 2024, the report says.
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Here in tasmania the local councils have $600 tax on installing a home solar panel array ?
Yep thats right, a tax of nearly 30% on a small 1.5kw system !
Of course there are no taxes of 30% on giant Ram utes or massive outboard engines that guzzle fuel but on planet saving solar panels yes….keep voting for idiots and you get idiot policies…