Battery-to-Solar Attachment Rates

Battery-to-Solar Attachment Rates

There was one Energy Storage System for every PV system installed in 2022, according to the recently released 2023 SunWiz Annual Australian Battery Market Report.

The ratio of ESS-to-PV installations was 15%. We refer to this as the Battery Attachment Rate. However, many (~33%) of the battery installations were retrofit to an existing PV system, and many batteries accompanied the expansion or replacement of an existing PV system. (So the physical ‘attachment’ rate of batteries to new PV sales was actually lower than 15%). 

As there were 314,000 PV systems registered in 2022, this means there were 47,100 ESS installations.

The chart below, extracted from software proposals, shows two attachment rate metrics. One is ‘as proposed’, and another is ‘as sold’. In 2021 an increasing percentage of proposals incorporated batteries, accompanied by an increasing percentage of actual sales. In 2022 the ‘as proposed’ attachment rate leveled out, but the ‘as-sold’ attachment rate leaped when AEMO struggled to maintain orderly supply mid-year, and again in late 2022 as electricity prices started to bite.

Some have predicted that in the next 10 years there will be more new batteries added than new PV systems. For the time being ESS:PV attachment rates remain well below 100%, But annual battery installations grew by 55% in 2022, outstripping the PV growth rate (-18%). Batteries are only installed on 1.6% of total dwellings. The cumulative of 180,000 batteries is now 5.3% of the cumulative total of 3.3million PV systems. Battery installations may have grown faster than PV installations, but whichever way you look at it, a lot of catch up is needed.

The 2023 SunWiz Annual Australian Battery Market Report has been released and is essential reading for industry participants and newcomers alike. View a sample here: https://www.sunwiz.com.au/battery-market-report-australia-2023/