Australia’s massive residential battery build continues: 12 GWh via 520,000 home batteries in 2026, crackdowns on quality
Source：pv magazine
Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator (CER), the body overseeing the country’s pro-renewable energy schemes, has forecast up to 12 GWh of storage from a potential 520,000 residential battery installations will happen, and rooftop solar will rebound from 2.7 GW in 2025 to between 3-3.37 GW.
The CER sets a broad range for home battery installations between 350,000 and 520,000 equating to 8-12 GWh of storage, saying it reflects the challenge of projecting uptake of its subsidy program for batteries dubbed the Cheaper Home Batteries Scheme (CHBS).
“The Cheaper Home Batteries Program exceeded early expectations in its first six months,” the CER said.
“More than 193,000 valid batteries were installed in 2025, delivering 4.6 GWh of capacity, more storage capacity than the 12 largest in-service large-scale batteries in the National Electricity Market (NEM) combined,” referring to Australia’s grid.
The data has been released as part of its December quarter 2025 Quarterly Carbon Market Report, with further details in pv magazine Australia.
Crackdown on quality problems
The CER is also stepping up concerns about issues it is seeing with installed batteries, as the rush by Australian residents to claim subsidies caused a surge in demand and put pressure on installers to meet demand.
CER Executive General Manager, Carl Binning, said in a statement that the regulator will require more photos of setups to be sent for checks, use AI as part of the assessment process, plus dp more physical checks and audits of homes with batteries installed, and work on cutting off those who cut corners
“This is a busy period for the industry, and our focus is on making sure standards stay high and consumers stay safe. I’m putting installers on notice that unsafe and non-compliant work will be identified, and we won’t hesitate to use our compliance powers. This could result in installers being removed from the [scheme]. We’re committed to continuous improvement across the industry, that’s why we’re implementing these additional photo requirements for installers. We’ll use sophisticated Artificial Intelligence as part of our assessment process to ensure all claims are meeting the new requirements. The message to installers is do it once and do it well.”
The CER earlier noted that by 19 February 2026, it had conducted 846 solar battery inspections with 350 marked as finalized, a relevant statistical portion. Of those, 0.9% were unsafe, related to wiring and protections, and 62.8% “substandard,” meaning technically non-compliant but safe to remain in operation.
The majority of those non-compliant installations were due to incorrect or missing warning labels, incorrect labelling of backed-up circuits, and incorrect labelling for emergency services, reflecting Australia’s high demands on signage.
Some issues have been found with suppliers as well, with Sigenergy storage products voluntarily recalled, after multiple reports of damage to AC plugs through claims of overheating.
The latest CER updates also included warnings to manufacturers and installers to provide the regulator with “early notification of systemic risks” for assessments.
Rooftop solar
As installer capacity shifted from small-scale rooftop solar to residential battery installs in 2025, the impact softened rooftop solar for part of 2025 compared to 2024 and totalled 2.8 GW of installations from around 270,000 systems.
The CER projects rooftop solar installations will recover, however, to 3-3.7 GW in 2026, with the CHBS supporting ongoing demand for new and upgraded systems.