Ownership of ‘Solar Energy Systems’ is on the rise
New data from Roy Morgan shows 32% of Australian households now have some form of solar energy system which can be a solar hot water system, a solar heated swimming pool or rooftop solar panels with or without battery systems – and these figures include 27% of households with solar panels and 5% with solar panels and storage batteries.
The incidence of Australian households with solar energy systems has increased significantly in the last four years and equates to over 3.3 million Australian households that now have access to solar energy.
Government rebate schemes continue to make solar power more affordable for Australians. Many States offer additional incentives that can be combined with the federal rebate for even greater savings.
Despite not having a State-level rebate for solar panels in Western Australia, they are leading the way in solar panel ownership (37%) along with South Australian households (37%), followed by Queensland (33%). Households in these States are more likely to have solar panels than an average Australian household.
Solar Energy and Solar Panel Household Penetration by State & Territory – September 2025
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source. October 2024 – September 2025. Base: Australian Households n=65,956; NSW incl ACT n=20,755; VIC n=17,026; QLD n=12,593; SA n=5,467; TAS n=2,265; WA n=7,018; Darwin-Alice Springs n=832.
Households in South Australia and Northern Territory (Darwin & Alice Springs) have a higher take-up of solar batteries (9% and 7% of households, respectively) compared to the national average (5%). This is likely thanks to the Northern Territory Government’s more generous subsidies on the purchase and installation of solar batteries through their Home and Business Battery Scheme (HBBS).
South Australian households have also benefitted from subsidies offered by the previous ‘SA Home Batter Scheme.’ These results suggest that subsidies appeal to households more than interest-free loans when it comes to the acquisition of solar batteries.
Take-up of Solar Power Storage Batteries set to increase significantly over next five years
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCEEW) has partnered with the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) and jointly launched the Cheaper Home Batteries Program in July 2025. Through this program, Australian households can now get a discount of around 30% on the upfront cost of installing small-scale battery systems of 5kWh to 100kWh.
The program is a national scheme with broad eligibility intended to complement State and Territory government battery incentives. This means households could be eligible for support under multiple schemes which makes the acquisition of solar battery storage even more affordable than ever before.
While this subsidy rate of 30% is set to be reviewed annually and intended to gradually decrease each calendar year, this decrease is predicted to be in line with the likely reduction of battery prices and will be accessible throughout the next five years until 2030.
While ownership of solar power storage batteries is at a much lower rate compared to solar panels, such a generous federal subsidy is set to ramp up the future take-up of solar power storage batteries nationwide.
Ownership of Solar Panels and Storage Battery by Household
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source Australia. October 2014 to September 2015; October 2019 to September 2020;
October 2024 to September 2025. Base: Australian Households, average annual interviews, n=54,944.
For roof solar panels alone, there has been an increase of around 350,000 households since 2020 (2.55 million in 2020, now at 2.9 million in 2025), which represents a 13.6% increase. This trend has been steadily increasing year-on-year since September 2020 with an average annual growth rate of 3%.
While take up of storage battery is at a much lower rate (5% of households in September 2025), acquisition of storage batteries has seen a substantial increase in the last five years (up 82% since 2020). That equates to around 240,000 more households since 2020 with a total of over half a million Australian households who can store excess solar energy while the sun is shining.
In the last year alone, there was a 12% increase in households with roof solar panels with a storage battery, that’s 56,000 more households compared to the same month (September 2024) a year ago.
Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, says acquisition of ‘Solar Energy Systems’ – including roof solar panels, and solar energy storage battery systems – continues to increase, with significant government support via rebates, and interest-free loans:
“The latest Roy Morgan data shows ownership of ‘Solar Energy Systems’ around Australia has seen a substantial increase in the last decade, and more recently, the acquisition of solar energy storage battery systems has boomed with 82% growth from only five years ago.
“This increase in uptake has been powered by generous subsidies and rebates for installation. The Federal Government’s ‘Cheaper Home Batteries Program,’ which launched recently in July 2025, is expected to lead to an even more rapid uptake of solar energy storage battery systems in the coming years.
“Analysis of the broader market shows households in Western Australia and South Australia (both 41%), the Northern Territory (39%) and Queensland (37%) are the most likely to own a ‘Solar Energy System’ of some form which can be a solar hot water system, a solar heated swimming pool or rooftop solar panels with or without battery systems – well above the national figure of 32% of households.
“Looking forward, there are challenges to the market. The increase in solar energy supply, which has resulted from the substantial increase in solar panel ownership in recent years, is prompting energy service providers to reduce the value they place on solar energy fed back into the grid.
“In addition, the ongoing cost-of-living crisis has led to the highest inflation for over three decades and one of the key drivers has been increasing energy prices – including electricity and other utility prices.
“Importantly, the data scientists at Roy Morgan have uncovered interesting relationships between all these factors including between solar energy uptake and switching energy companies and we will reveal these findings in coming weeks.
“To find out the latest detailed data on the behaviour of customers in the electricity market – including ownership of solar energy systems such as rooftop solar and storage batteries, contact Roy Morgan.”
To learn more about Roy Morgan Single Source and more, call (+61) (3) 9224 5309 or email askroymorgan@roymorgan.com.
Please click on this link to the Roy Morgan Online Store to view additional in-depth reports and profiles on consumer data in the utility and energy industries.
About Roy Morgan
Roy Morgan is the largest independent Australian research company, with offices in each state of Australia, as well as in the United States and the United Kingdom. A full-service research organisation specialising in omnibus and syndicated data, Roy Morgan has over 80 years’ experience in collecting objective, independent information on consumers.
Margin of Error
The margin of error to be allowed for in any estimate depends mainly on the number of interviews on which it is based. Margin of error gives indications of the likely range within which estimates would be 95% likely to fall, expressed as the number of percentage points above or below the actual estimate. Allowance for design effects (such as stratification and weighting) should be made as appropriate.
| Sample Size | Percentage Estimate |
| 40% – 60% | 25% or 75% | 10% or 90% | 5% or 95% | |
| 1,000 | ±3.0 | ±2.7 | ±1.9 | ±1.3 |
| 5,000 | ±1.4 | ±1.2 | ±0.8 | ±0.6 |
| 7,500 | ±1.1 | ±1.0 | ±0.7 | ±0.5 |
| 10,000 | ±1.0 | ±0.9 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 |
| 20,000 | ±0.7 | ±0.6 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 |
| 50,000 | ±0.4 | ±0.4 | ±0.3 | ±0.2 |
