Ahead of the introduction of home battery rebate reductions on May 1, April was a bumper month for residential rooftop solar uptake in Australia, up 30% on the month prior.
Australia installed 435 MW of residential rooftop solar in April 2026, a 30% month-on-month (MoM) increase, according to market insights from solar consultancy SunWiz.
The bumper month came ahead of The Cheaper Home Batteries Program (CHBP), a home battery rebate reduction which came into force on May 1. This gear-change tapped the brakes a little in May, seeing rooftop solar uptake down by 22% MoM, but still 46% above May 2025.
SunWiz said a key driver was the CHBP change, but also the demand for larger solar arrays needed to pair with bigger home battery energy storage systems (BESS).
“Every size band and state remains well above year-ago levels, and the Cheaper Home Battery Program continues to act as a multiplier on PV,” the SunWiz insight paper says.
