Small-scale certificate April record bumps rooftop solar 30% to 435 MW

On the eve of 1 May 2026 home battery rebate reductions, April was a bumper month for residential rooftop solar uptake nationwide achieving 435 MW, up 30% month-on-month (MoM), according to SunWiz market insights.

The Cheaper Home Batteries Program (CHBP) gear-change tapped the brakes a little in May, seeing rooftop solar uptake down by 22% MoM, but still 46% above May 2025.

SunWiz said a key driver was the CHBP change, but also the demand for larger solar arrays needed to pair with bigger home battery energy storage systems (BESS).

“Every size band and state remains well above year-ago levels, and the Cheaper Home Battery Program continues to act as a multiplier on PV,” the SunWiz insight paper says.

“Electrification of appliances and EVs is the likely next leg of the cycle.”

All states remained well above year-on-year levels, but from April to May, Victoria was the only state to grow MoM +16%, while Queensland saw the sharpest correction -34%, followed by New South Wales (NSW) -32%, South Australia (SA) – 28%, Northern Territory (NT) -10%, Tasmania -3%, and Western Australia (WA) -2%.

0-100 KW volume combined monthly compared to previous years | Image: SunWiz

“The 10–15 kW residential band remains the backbone at 121 MW (~36% of the market),” the Insights say.

“The mix continues to tilt toward larger systems — 15–20 kW and 20–50 kW both gained share this year — while the traditional 5–10 kW band keeps shrinking (down to ~28% of capacity). The large-format15–100 kW segment eased from April’s spike but still sits well clear of every prior year.”

SunWiz notes EnergyBuild (Stoddart) is the runaway year-to-date (YTD) leader installing approximately 23.5 MW, followed by Green Engineering/AGPIG (~8 MW) in second ahead of NSEG (~6.7 MW), but Suntera (SOLA NOW), fourth on ~5.8 MW, posted a strong Q2 and is closing on a top-three spot.