Australian Solar Prices: May 2022 Update

How much were Australians paying for solar power systems in April 2022? Find out in the latest SolarQuotes Australian Solar Price Report.

In our report last month, we noted average installed costs per watt dropped in Queensland, the ACT, Victoria and South Australia in March compared to February. Here’s what happened in those and other states in April compared to March, and a look back at April last year.

These figures are sourced from the Solar Quotes Australian Solar Price Index. It’s a handy online tool that generates historical solar pricing in each state and nationally, along with filters for creating reports on various system capacities and components.

The figures above are costs for fully installed systems, inclusive of all rebates and up-front subsidies. April’s figures are based on details supplied by 286 purchasers at the time of writing, who chose to indicate what they paid for their systems when submitting solar installer reviews. These submissions included reviews of installers not within the SQ installer network.

Note that the figures above and in the graphs below may change as they are generated in real-time as new reviews are submitted.

Cost Per Watt Nationally

The following graph shows average cost-per-watt across all system sizes nationally going back to May 2020.

Looking at the individual states, the figures for April so far are a reverse what happened the previous month; with significant increases in Queensland, Victoria and South Australia after drops in March. But while NSW and WA saw hikes in March compared with February, there were significant decreases for both states in April compared to March.

With regard to TAS, NT and the ACT, we didn’t have enough data at the time of publishing this report to provide useful figures in those jurisdictions.

6.6kW Solar System Pricing In April 2022

While many Australians are choosing to install larger systems these days, 6.6kW solar systems remain the most popular capacity choice – and here’s how costs have been tracking on this size over the past couple of years.

So, what was the price dip in March about? There has been some chatter Australia’s wholesalers purchased large quantities of panels a while back for expected orders that didn’t materialise – and then struggled to offload them. Perhaps this temporarily took the heat off panel costs, but that doesn’t really explain differences between the states over the last couple of months.

Electricity Prices – A New Solar Rush On The Horizon?

As we often point out, it’s always a good time to install solar panels – even with system prices currently higher than they were a year ago. This is simply because the longer a household puts off installing panels, the longer it is locking in higher electricity bills.

And on that point, even higher electricity costs may be looming for Australian households given upwards pressure on wholesale pricing and other factors. Some news reports in the last few days claim particularly painful increases await in the not-too-distant future, regardless of who won the election.

But even if things don’t turn out quite as bad as some are predicting, any significant increase will likely see more demand for solar installations. And if current import and panel pricing issues persist, this could see system prices heading north.