The who, what, and where behind the boom in home batteries

Home batteries were installed in record numbers in almost every state and territory in Australia in 2022, striking a new annual record for home battery installations in Australia, and a 55 per cent increase on 2021 numbers.

Data from solar analysts at SunWiz shows 47,100 home batteries were added to the national total in 2022, which by the end of the year had reached 180,000. That’s the equivalent of 1920 MWh energy storage capacity or nearly 2GWh.

As power prices hit record new highs, tens of thousands more households are opting to invest – or invest further – in energy independence.

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Who's investing in batteries?

On a state-by-state basis, New South Wales leads the nation to date with a total of 51,629 home batteries installed.

Second is Victoria, which has 44,284 small-scale batteries – no doubt boosted by Victoria’s ongoing home battery subsidy.

Third is South Australia with 34,112. SunWiz Managing Director, Warwick Johnston, says SA is “certainly punching above its weight” on batteries, thanks to the state’s high rooftop PV uptake and leadership on virtual power plants. Virtual power plants are created by aggregating thousands of household solar and battery installations to help stabilise the electricity grid.

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Sunwiz was able to get a postcode-level look at where batteries are being installed using data from the Australian Energy Market Operator’s Distributed Energy ResourceRegister (DER).

Top of the table was Salisbury, in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. In fact, the top 8 postcodes with batteries are all in South Australia and the state dominates the top 40, with a small number of Queensland and ACT postcodes in the mix.

SunWiz says the majority of customers behind this year’s record sales – 55% – were buying a battery at the same time as a new rooftop solar system. By going for the whole package, customers can achieve home energy independence straight off the bat.

With high energy prices, and the increasing number of solar and battery package and finance deals on offer from both solar companies and energy retailers, it’s not surprising households are opting for energy independence.

Of the remaining 45% of sales and installations in 2022, 5% added more battery capacity to existing energy storage systems, 25% added a battery to existing rooftop solar system, 5% added a battery to an expanded rooftop solar system and 10% added a battery to a replacement rooftop system.

SunWiz has also put together a chart that tracks the size of the home batteries people are installing.

It shows that, just as rooftop solar system sizes have been getting bigger, customers are making a shift towards bigger home batteries. Most range between9kWh and 14kWh, and average out to 12.5kWh/system.

The original of this article was first published on One Step off the Grid. You can read it here.