The Clean Energy Regulator database of solar PV generators represents all the systems that have been installed under the Commonwealth Government’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme. The RET commenced on 1 April 2001, hence this is the earliest date from which national data is available.
PV system owners and installers have up to twelve months to report the installation of a new system to the Clean Energy Regulator. Historically, 50% of new installations are registered within one month, and 90% of new installations within four months.
For this reason, the data for the more recent months understates the number of actual installations. In the graphs below, an estimate is made, based on historical reporting patterns, to account for the time difference between systems being installed and appearing in the database.
Between 2001 and 2010 the growth in the market for solar PV was around 15%. A period of extremely rapid growth occurred between 2010-2013. The number of monthly installations stabilised through 2014 and 2015, and now appears to be trending slightly upwards in the residential sector, with an increase in the number of larger (commercial and utility-scale) PV systems keeping overall installed capacity high.
Until December 2025, the data includes all installed PV. From January 2026, installations are marked as one of the following: new, replacement, addition, or extension. Only new systems are counted in installation numbers. Replacements, additions, and extensions are not counted as installations, but their capacity is added. Details of how each case is processed are given below each graph.
In the graph above, when calculating cumulative capacity, a PV system labelled as a replacement takes the place of an existing system. We don't have the address of any system, so we cannot identify which existing system a replacement refers to. The replaced system is therefore selected at random from the sample of systems in that postcode that are 10 years old and smaller than the newly installed system. We then add only the net increase in capacity. This applies only to installations from January 2026 onwards.
The following graphs show the rated capacity of solar PV installed in each month. The rate of installations has been influenced by changes in the policy mechanisms that have supported this technology.
The graph above does not include systems marked as a replacement of, addition to, or extension of an existing PV system, as these are not new installations. This applies only to installations from January 2026 onwards.
A comparison between the number of installations and kW capacity installed in each calendar month shows a trend towards the installation of larger systems.
The graph above includes capacity from all installed systems, including replacements, upgrades and additions, as well as systems that have been removed.
Monthly, per-postcode aggregated PV installation data is updated quarterly and available for download from the Clean Energy Regulator.
Download dataThe graph above does not include systems marked as a replacement of, addition to, or extension of an existing PV system, as these are not new installations. This applies only to installations from January 2026 onwards.
Download dataThe energy generated by distributed PV systems in each State has been calculated using data from the APVI Live Map.