Australians are embracing rooftop solar and domestic batteries at world-record rates, paving the way for a rapid transformation of the nation’s energy grid, according to the federal government’s March Quarterly Carbon Market Report.
The report reveals that Australia now outpaces every other nation in home storage deployment, driven primarily by the Cheaper Home Batteries Program.
Under the initiative, 7.4 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of capacity was installed in its first nine months alone.
Australia now boasts over 420,000 household battery systems, delivering more than 12 GWh of usable capacity. This surge ranks Australia third globally for combined residential and utility-scale storage, trailing only manufacturing heavyweights China and the United States. The milestone follows the commissioning of 4.4 gigawatts (GW) of capacity in the 12 months to March.
Rooftop solar also achieved a first-quarter record, with 791 megawatts (MW) installed, continuing the trend of household solar offsetting growth in electricity demand in the National Electricity Market.
Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen noted that the government’s policies were right for Australia’s future energy needs.
“Our plan is delivering more cheaper, cleaner energy at record rates,” Bowen said.
“Our roll out of more renewables and storage saw batteries more than triple their daytime-to evening energy shifting in the first quarter, reducing our reliance on unreliable coal to put downward pressure on bills, as we saw in last week’s Default Market Offer (DMO).”
The report indicates this growing storage capacity will increasingly prevent commercial wind and solar farms from having to curtail their output during periods of low or negative pricing.
Simultaneously, the large-scale renewables pipeline is surging ahead. Just five months into 2026, final investment decisions have been secured for 2.4 GW of new wind and solar projects, already eclipsing the total recorded for the entirety of 2025.
The federal government’s reliable renewables plan now has 26.9 GW of projects either under contract or in active negotiations. This includes 35 advanced projects that have executed binding agreements under the Capacity Investment Scheme, steering Australia firmly toward its 2030 targets of 26 GW of new utility-scale generation and 14 GW of dispatchable capacity.
