The national demand for solar panels has surged towards the end of 2016, recovering from a first-half slump, but NSW has gone backwards on both the residential and commercial fronts.
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Figures gathered by Green Energy Trading show that new solar photovoltaic capacity ended slightly higher across Australia for the year – up 1.3 per cent – to total 723.36 megawatts.
The shift towards commercial demand continued, with business customers accounting for just over a quarter of the market last year. That's up from a share of 21 per cent in 2015.
The residential sector, which had been the main driver of growth, shrank 3 per cent as states ditched supporting feed-in tariffs.
Overall, the market had been heading towards a 12 per cent decline at the mid-year point, Ric Brazzale, managing director of Green Energy Trading, said.
"We were quite surprise at the extent of the pick-up," Mr Brazzale said, adding many firm were "reporting they've got pretty full order books going into 2017".
NSW was the only state to report a drop for both commercial and residential demand last year. (See chart below.)
"It's actually going backwards the most," Mr Brazzale said.
NSW's Energy Minister Anthony Roberts denied the state was falling behind others. The Clean Energy Council report for 2015 put NSW's renewable share at 7.7 per cent behind all states other than Queensland.
"Over the last five years the NSW government's policies to grow our share of renewable energy have supported a threefold increase in NSW-based wind generation and a sixfold increase in solar generation," Mr Roberts said.
"As at September 2016, more than 350,000 NSW households had adopted small-scale solar – equivalent to around one in seven houses in NSW," Mr Roberts said.
According to Mr Brazzale commercial clients could expect to add new solar at a price of about $1.75 per watt, down 12.5 per cent in a year. Residential customers will pay about $2 per watt for smaller systems.
The payback period for companies is about six years in NSW, eight years in Victoria and five years in South Australia, he said.
According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, total investment in renewables bounced back last year but remains far short of the highs reached during the Rudd-Gillard governments. (See chart below.)
