Australia’s world-leading rooftop solar market is showing signs of maturity, but a record boom in home battery sales is keeping the household energy transition on track.

New data from the Clean Energy Council (CEC) has revealed that 85,000 home batteries were sold in the first half of 2025, which is nearly three times the figure from a year earlier.

Sales in the June quarter alone topped 56,000, seven times higher than in the same period of 2022. Cumulative installations have now surpassed 270,000 units.

The surge comes as federal and state subsidies kick in, including the Albanese government’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program and WA’s Residential Battery Scheme, both launched in July.

Analysts say households rushed to buy systems ahead of the new financial year, driving the sharp spike.

By contrast, rooftop solar uptake has slowed.

Just over 115,500 new systems were installed between January and June, down 18% year-on-year and the weakest first-half performance since 2019. Rising interest rates, cost-of-living pressures and reduced subsidies have been blamed for the downturn.

Despite the slowdown, Australia’s rooftop solar capacity now sits at 26.8 gigawatts across more than 4.2 million homes and businesses, supplying 12.8% of the nation’s electricity in the first half of the year.

The CEC estimates households are on track to overshoot the Australian Energy Market Operator’s 2030 rooftop solar target of 36GW, with projections of 37.2GW by mid-decade.

CEC general manager Con Hristodoulidis said consumers are driving the transition at “breathtaking speed.”

Queensland overtook New South Wales for new rooftop capacity in the first half, adding 326 megawatts versus NSW’s 321MW, though NSW still leads overall with 7.5GW installed.

Industry experts say batteries could be as disruptive as the solar boom itself.

As virtual power plants scale up, household storage is increasingly being aggregated to rival the capacity of traditional coal plants while easing pressure on the grid and stabilising wholesale electricity prices.