The Australian Rooftop Valuation Report, published alongside the official launch of One Stop Warehouse (OSW) Group’s AI-powered platform GreenSketch, finds Australian homes could be saving a collective $26 billion (USD 18 billion) a year on electricity through solar – more than $3,000 annually for an average household.
The report found the financial returns in Australia for rooftop solar over 10 years is estimated to be $148.25 billion and over 20 years, $394.94 billion.
“For the average Australian home, this translates to financial returns of an estimated $17,600 after 10 years, and $46,888 after 20 years,” the report says.
Analysing over 8.4 million individual rooftops across 49 significant urban areas using GreenSketch’s artificial intelligence (AI) agent Emily, the analysis calculated the solar potential of each rooftop individually using AI models for 3D building reconstruction.
Technology deployed included satellite imagery, digitally recreating most buildings with high fidelity, AI-based roof recognition, geographical information systems (GIS), and computational logic to determine roof slope, orientation, and installable panel capacity for each address.
“Emily then derived electricity demand based on state-level consumption data, calculated optimal system capacity and hardware selection following Australia’s technical standards (DC/AC ratio and single-phase grid limitations), simulated hourly energy generation and flow patterns using PV-GIS data, and projected financial returns including government Small-scale Technology Certificate (STC) incentives,” a GreenSketch statement said.
The analysis applied the “High Performer” configuration, balancing high performance with actual state-level electricity usage and available subsidies to generate 10 and 20 year return projections, Internal Rate of Return (IRR), payback periods, and annual bill savings for each property.
Rooftop solar value
The free-to-use online platform offered by GreenSketch for installers and homeowners, automates rooftop solar and financial analysis in seconds, providing a user-friendly visual tool to understand a property’s rooftop solar value.
GreenSketch Country Manager Richard Cameron said Australia has one of the highest rates of residential solar adoption in the world, “yet most homeowners have no way to measure what their roof is actually worth or how to maximise that value.”
“This research quantifies that hidden value – around $50,000 for the typical Sydney home over 20 years and billions of dollars collectively across the country,” Cameron said.
“Until now, there has been no standardised way to value a home’s rooftop energy infrastructure. We can tell you what any house is worth, but not what the roof itself is worth. GreenSketch and Emily solve that by making rooftop value visible and measurable across millions of properties, we are creating the system of record for Australia’s distributed energy economy.”
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