Boom in battery sales for domestic power is offsetting the decline in take-up of rooftop solar panels
Australia’s love affair with rooftop solar panels is cooling just as households embrace a new power revolution, with battery sales surging sevenfold in a dramatic market shift.
Australians are buying home batteries for their domestic power at a record pace, even as the nation’s once-surging rooftop solar panel market cools.
Data from the Clean Energy Council shows 85,000 home batteries were sold in the first half of 2025 – almost triple the volume from a year earlier. By contrast, rooftop solar installations fell 18 per cent year-on-year, with 115,584 systems added between January and June, the weakest first-half result since 2019.
The diverging trends highlight the maturing of the rooftop solar market and the impact of fresh subsidies designed to accelerate household storage. The federal government’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program and Western Australia’s Residential Battery Scheme both took effect from July, prompting a rush of purchases in the lead-up to the new financial year.
Battery sales in the June quarter alone exceeded 56,000 – more than seven times the level in the same period of 2022. Total cumulative sales have now passed 270,000 units, nearly double the figure at mid-2024.
While solar uptake has slowed, the sector is central to Australia’s energy mix. More than 4.2 million homes and businesses now have solar panels, representing 26.8 gigawatts of capacity. Rooftop solar panels supplied 12.8 per cent of the nation’s electricity in the first half of 2025, up from 11.5 per cent a year earlier.
The Clean Energy Council estimates rooftop capacity already accounts for almost three quarters of the level needed to meet the Australian Energy Market Operator’s 2030 target of 36GW. On current trends, capacity will hit 37.2GW by mid-2030, slightly ahead of target.
CEC general manager Con Hristodoulidis said the data illustrates the importance of the renewable energy sources.
“Consumers and small businesses are delivering the transition at breathtaking speed, turning suburban roofs into one of the biggest power stations in the country,” Mr Hristodoulidis said.
“Just as Australians have long understood the value of solar in lowering energy bills, we are now seeing a surge in battery adoption, which allows households to store their own clean energy and maximise savings.”
Queensland overtook New South Wales for the first time as the biggest state market for new rooftop capacity in the half year, adding 326 megawatts compared with NSW’s 321MW. Victoria followed with 230MW. NSW still has the largest installed base overall, at 7.5GW.
The slowdown in new solar panel sales will concern an industry which has relied on strong household uptake to underpin Australia’s clean energy transition. Analysts point to higher interest rates, cost-of-living pressures and the winding back of some subsidies as dampening factors.
Even so, the systems being installed are larger than ever. Average size rose to 10.2 kilowatts in the first half, up 4 per cent on the prior year, reflecting falling per-unit costs and growing demand from households electrifying appliances and cars.
The rise of household batteries could prove as disruptive as the solar boom itself. Virtual power plants that aggregate small batteries are starting to rival the capacity of coal-fired generators, while storage also helps reduce pressure on distribution networks often strained by excess solar exports.
More storage could also smooth volatility in the wholesale market, where solar output has increasingly pushed daytime power prices below zero, accelerating the exit of coal but highlighting the gap in firm renewables to replace it.
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