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2024 Solar Installation Report Reveals Environmental Impact and Sustainability Metrics Across Australia

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18 Mar, 2025

This post was originally published on Sustainability Matters

Australia’s 2024 solar installations will prevent approximately 4.23 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually — equivalent to removing 760,000 cars from the road. This striking environmental benefit, calculated by Solar Nerds’ sustainability research team in their environmental impact analysis of Australia’s solar sector, demonstrates how distributed solar generation is delivering meaningful climate progress despite ongoing policy uncertainty. The report quantifies Australia’s sustainability progress through detailed installation metrics, geographical analysis, system size distribution, and insights from a nationwide survey of solar professionals.

The report presents comprehensive data on Australia’s solar deployment, with detailed rankings of the top 10 installers by kilowatt capacity. When viewed through a sustainability lens, these installation volumes represent significant carbon reduction achievements contributing to emissions reduction targets tracked by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

The analysis shows that 2024’s total solar installations of 3,222,311 kilowatts will avoid approximately 4.23 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, equivalent to removing 760,000 cars from Australia’s roads. The data reveals that residential installations (0–15 kW) contributed 77% of these environmental benefits, highlighting the crucial role of household-level sustainability actions in national environmental progress.

A breakdown of installations by system size categories (0–15 kW, 15–40 kW, and 40+ kW) illustrates how different sectors — from residential to commercial and industrial — are contributing to Australia’s overall sustainability goals. This segmentation helps environmental managers understand which market sectors are driving the most significant carbon reductions.

The data highlights that NSW achieved the highest solar adoption with 32% of the national total, resulting in approximately 1.03 million tonnes of avoided CO2 emissions. NT recorded the most substantial year-over-year growth at 16.49%, accelerating its environmental progress.

Detailed state-level analyses provide insights into how sustainability progress varies across Australia. This regional breakdown helps sustainability professionals understand geographical variations in carbon reduction progress and identify areas where additional initiatives may be needed.

The report features 12-month historical data presented through intuitive bar charts, allowing environmental managers to track installation volumes — and, by extension, carbon reduction — over time. This temporal analysis is complemented by quarter-over-quarter comparisons that indicate whether sustainability progress is accelerating or slowing.

Imraan Thanawalla, Managing Director of Solaris Finance (owner of Solar Nerds), notes, “Our temporal analysis reveals important patterns in Australia’s decarbonization journey.” Understanding these patterns helps sustainability professionals assess progress towards corporate and governmental climate goals.

For sustainability professionals focused on specific environmental goals, the report offers dedicated analysis of different system size categories:

  • 0–15 kW systems: Primarily residential installations.
  • 15–40 kW systems: Small commercial installations.
  • 40–kW systems: Larger commercial and industrial installations.
     

These segmented analyses help environmental managers understand which system scales are delivering the most substantial sustainability benefits, aligning with findings from Climate Works Australia’s Decarbonisation Futures report. For organizations considering solar adoption, understanding what size solar system would best meet their sustainability goals is a crucial planning consideration.

The report’s postcode analysis identifies Australia’s environmental leadership zones, with rankings of the top-performing postcodes both nationally (top 10) and by state (top 5). Year-over-year growth figures highlight emerging centres of sustainability adoption, providing valuable intelligence for environmental planners and policy advocates.

This geographical data helps sustainability professionals identify high-performing regions and understand localized adoption patterns. For environmental managers, the postcode data provides benchmarking opportunities and insights into community-level sustainability progress.

Australia’s sustainability leaders by postcode and growth rate

Drawing from the industry survey, the report provides insights into which sustainable technologies are gaining market traction:

  • Leading inverter technologies and their efficiency characteristics
  • Preferred solar panel manufacturers and their sustainability credentials
  • Battery storage systems supporting greater renewable energy utilization
     

These technology preferences help sustainability professionals understand how the technical aspects of how solar systems work are evolving to deliver greater environmental benefits.

The report examines how renewable energy projects are being financed, analysing the balance between capital expenditure and various financing approaches. This information is particularly valuable for sustainability professionals seeking to understand how financial models are supporting or hindering environmental progress.

Thanawalla also mentioned, “Financial accessibility remains a key enabler of corporate sustainability initiatives.” These insights help environmental managers develop appropriate business cases for solar adoption, with clear understanding of available project funding options to support sustainability goals.

The report includes analysis of how incentive mechanisms like Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs) are supporting Australia’s sustainability transition. Rankings of top STC traders by volume and market share provide context for understanding how effectively these policy instruments are driving environmental outcomes, which is regularly assessed by the Grattan Institute in their energy transition analyses.

The industry survey provides insights into the installation methodologies and operational approaches that installers use. This information helps sustainability professionals understand how installation processes are being optimised to reduce waste and improve system performance.

These operational insights are particularly valuable for organizations developing sustainable procurement guidelines or evaluating potential solar partners based on their environmental practices.

The 2024 Yearly Report features an awards section recognizing sustainability excellence across various categories. These awards highlight exemplary companies that are setting benchmarks for environmental performance in the Australian solar market.

The 2024 Yearly Solar Installation Report provides environmental managers and sustainability professionals with comprehensive, data-driven insights into Australia’s solar market and its environmental impact. The detailed installation metrics, regional analyses, and industry perspectives collectively document the nation’s progress toward a more sustainable energy system.

For organizations seeking deeper insights into sustainability performance, system economics, and technical specifications, Solar Nerds also provides extensive educational resources on various aspects of solar technology and environmental impact.

Top image: Snapshot of Australia’s solar deployment in 2024.

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Taking the electronic pulse of the circular economy

Taking the electronic pulse of the circular economy

31 Jul, 2025

In June, I had the privilege of attending the 2025 E-Waste World, Battery Recycling, Metal Recycling, and ITAD & Circular Electronics Conference & Expo events in Frankfurt, Germany.

Speaking in the ITAD & Circular Electronics track on a panel with global Circular Economy leaders from Foxway Group, ERI and HP, we explored the evolving role of IT asset disposition (ITAD) and opportunities in the circular electronics economy.

The event’s focus on advancing circular economy goals and reducing environmental impact delivered a series of insights and learnings. From this assembly of international expertise across 75+ countries, here are some points from the presentations that stood out for me:

1. Environmental impact of the digital economy

Digitalisation has a heavy material footprint in the production phase, and lifecycle thinking needs to guide every product decision. Consider that 81% of the energy a laptop uses in its lifetime is consumed during manufacture (1 tonne in manufacture is equal to 10,000 tonnes of CO2) and laptops are typically refreshed or replaced by companies every 3–4 years.

From 2018 to 2023, the average number of devices and connections per capita in the world increased by 50% (2.4 to 3.6). In North America (8.2 to 13.4) and Western Europe (5.6 to 9.4), this almost doubled. In 1960, only 10 periodic table elements were used to make phones. In 1990, 27 elements were used and now over 60 elements are used to build the smartphones that we have become so reliant on.

A key challenge is that low-carbon and digital technologies largely compete for the same minerals. Material resource extraction could increase 60% between 2020 and 2060, while demand for lithium, cobalt and graphite is expected to rise by 500% until 2050.

High growth in ICT demand and Internet requires more attention to the environmental footprint of the digital economy. Energy consumption of data centres is expected to more than double by 2026. The electronics industry accounts for over 4% of global GHG — and digitalisation-related waste is growing, with skewed impacts on developing countries.

E-waste is rising five times faster than recycling — 1 tonne of e-waste has a carbon footprint of 2 tonnes. Today’s solution? ‘Bury it or burn it.’ In terms of spent emissions, waste and the costs associated with end-of-life liabilities, PCBAs (printed circuit board assembly) cost us enormously — they generally achieve 3–5% recyclability (75% of CO2 in PCBAs is from components).

2. Regulating circularity in electronics

There is good momentum across jurisdictions in right-to-repair, design and labelling regulations; recycling targets; and voluntary frameworks on circularity and eco-design.

The EU is at the forefront. EU legislation is lifting the ICT aftermarket, providing new opportunities for IT asset disposition (ITAD) businesses. To get a sense, the global market for electronics recycling is estimated to grow from $37 billion to $108 billion (2022–2030). The value of refurbished electronics is estimated to increase from $85.9 billion to $262.2 billion (2022–2032). Strikingly, 40% of companies do not have a formal ITAD strategy in place.

Significantly, the EU is rethinking its Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) management targets, aligned with upcoming circularity and WEEE legislation, as part of efforts to foster the circular economy. A more robust and realistic circularity-driven approach to setting collection targets would better reflect various factors including long lifespans of electronic products and market fluctuations.

Australia and New Zealand lag the EU’s comprehensive e-waste mandated frameworks. The lack of a systematic approach results in environmental degradation and missed positioning opportunities for businesses in the circular economy. While Australia’s Senate inquiry into waste reduction and recycling recommended legislating a full circular economy framework — including for imported and local product design, financial incentives and regulatory enforcement, New Zealand remains the only OECD country without a national scheme to manage e-waste.

3. Extending product lifecycles

Along with data security and digital tools, reuse was a key theme in the ITAD & Circular Electronics track of the conference. The sustainable tech company that I lead, Greenbox, recognises that reuse is the simplest circular strategy. Devices that are still functional undergo refurbishment and are reintroduced into the market, reducing new production need and conserving valuable resources.

Conference presenters highlighted how repair over replacement is being legislated as a right in jurisdictions around the world. Resources are saved, costs are lowered, product life is extended, and people and organisations are empowered to support a greener future. It was pointed out that just 43% of countries have recycling policies, 17% of global waste is formally recycled, and less than 1% of global e-waste is formally repaired and reused.

Right to repair is a rising wave in the circular economy, and legislation is one way that civil society is pushing back on programmed obsolescence. Its global momentum continues at different speeds for different product categories — from the recent EU mandates to multiple US state bills (and some laws) through to repair and reuse steps in India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The European Commission’s Joint Research Commission has done a scoping study to identify product groups under the Ecodesign framework that would be most relevant for implementing an EU-wide product reparability scoring system.

Attending this event with the entire electronic waste recycling supply chain — from peers and partners to suppliers and customers — underscored the importance of sharing best practices to address the environmental challenges that increased hardware proliferation and complex related issues are having on the world.

Ross Thompson is Group CEO of sustainability, data management and technology asset lifecycle management market leader Greenbox. With facilities in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, Greenbox Group provides customers all over the world a carbon-neutral supply chain for IT equipment to reduce their carbon footprint by actively managing their environmental, social and governance obligations.

Image credit: iStock.com/Mustafa Ovec

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