Australia installed 276,011 home batteries in the first half of 2026, 52% more than in the previous six months, the Clean Energy Council reports. Batteries now go in at 153 for every 100 rooftop solar systems, and the Cheaper Home Batteries Program reached 12.9 GWh in its first year.
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Batteries are now outpacing rooftop solar in Australian homes. The Clean Energy Council (CEC), the country's renewable energy industry body, counted 276,011 battery installations from January to June 2026 in its latest Rooftop Solar and Storage Report, up 52% on the 181,428 in the six months before. For every 100 solar systems fitted, 153 batteries went in, compared with 130 in the second half of 2025. Much of that, the CEC said, is retrofitting to homes that already had solar, with new-build solar and storage packages adding to it.
The federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program started on 1 July 2025. By the end of its first year it had logged 457,439 installations and 12.9 GWh of storage. Systems also got bigger for a while: the average size went from 17.2 kWh in July 2025 to 35.3 kWh in April 2026, before slipping to 26.6 kWh in June. Over the twelve months, the fleet averaged 28.2 kWh.
Rooftop solar recovered as well. The 180,878 systems installed in the half were 35% more than a year earlier, and their 1,894 MW of capacity was the highest six-month total on record. Since January 2019, Australians have installed 21,979 MW of rooftop solar, approaching the country's entire remaining coal-fired generation capacity.
Held at current rates, the CEC estimates that consumer battery storage in the National Electricity Market would reach 59.2 GWh by 2029/30. That is 79% above the 33 GWh projected in the 2026 Integrated System Plan of the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO). On the same path, it would pass AEMO's 2049/50 projection of 78 GWh around 2032. The report notes that the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) argued, in its submission on the draft plan, that AEMO's household battery forecasts were too low in the short term.
According to the CEC, most household batteries are still run simply to lift solar self-consumption, leaving significant value unrealised. The council is undertaking a Flexibility Value Study to quantify the consumer and system benefits of current battery operation and to identify the reforms needed to unlock more value through virtual power plants.