Australia installs 1.04 GWh of home batteries in October
The latest report from SunWiz shows Australian households and businesses installed an estimated 1,043 MWh of battery energy storage (5 kWh to 100 kWh) capacity in October 2026, up 9.7% on the 966.5 MWh registered in September and the strongest month since April’s 3,262 MWh peak. The October tally is about 18% more than the 885 MWh registered in the same month last year.
SunWiz Managing Director Warwick Johnston said the market is making a “steady recovery” after changes made to the federal government’s Cheaper Home Batteries rebate scheme. Those changes, introduced in May 2026, included a scaling of the incentive across small, medium and large systems.
“This is the second straight rise after August’s small dip, and volumes are now nearly double the May low, though still about 68% below April,” he said. “[This is a] continuation of recovery after [the] post-April slump, as customers come to the market in their own time, and in preparation for summer.”
Johnston said growth came mostly from systems sized at 20 kWh and above, with the 20 kWh to 30 kWh segment accounting for 399 MWh of the month’s total capacity, ahead of 40 kWh to 50 kWh at 273 MWh and 30 kWh to 40 kWh at 210 MWh.
“Together, the bands from 20 kWh upward made up 85% of capacity,” he said. “At the smaller end, 10 kWh to 20 kWh rose 3% to 150 MWh and 0 kWh to 10 kWh was flat at 11 MWh.”
The national average system size rose to 26.74 kWh, its fifth consecutive monthly gain.
Johnston said average system sizes have climbed steadily since May’s low of about 22 kWh but are still well below April’s 36.6 kWh peak.
Most states and territories posted growth in battery installations in October with 356 MWh of new capacity registered in New South Wales alone, up 10% on the previous month.
Installations in Victoria climbed 17% to 227 MWh while Queensland was up 5% to 217 MWh.
The release of the SunWiz data was followed by Australian Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen revealing that more than 600,000 batteries have now been installed under the government’s Cheaper Home Batteries program.
Bowen said more than 600,000 residential and business battery energy storage systems, representing close to 16.6 GWh of storage capacity, have been installed across Australia since the introduction of the rebate program on 1 July 2025.
“[This] makes us now second in the world for home batteries; more home batteries than China, more home batteries than India, more home batteries than the United States, more home batteries than France, more home batteries in the United Kingdom, second only to Germany,” he said, adding that more than 75% of batteries installed under the program have been in outer suburban and regional communities.
More about
Written by
Comments
Popular Posts
