SolarScorecard is Australia's independent solar suitability assessment platform. We help homeowners and businesses across every Australian suburb get a clear, honest answer to one question: does solar make sense for my specific property, in my specific suburb, at my specific bill amount?
We're not a sales channel for any installer or panel brand. We don't take a cut of installation revenue. Our scoring methodology weighs roof orientation, local sunshine hours, electricity tariffs, applicable state and federal rebates, and your typical bill — then produces a personalised solar score from 0 to 100 along with a savings projection grounded in publicly available data sources.
Run the assessment in 60 seconds. Free. No phone calls. No spam. No lead reselling.
How we calculate your solar score
Your score reflects six weighted factors, each derived from public, verifiable data:
- Solar irradiance for your specific suburb — peak sun hours data anchors the generation estimate, not a national average
- Roof orientation — north-facing scores highest, with realistic adjustment for east, west, and south-facing aspects
- Local electricity tariffs — your retailer's actual rates, not a national average. Tariffs vary 30–40% across states, which materially changes savings.
- Applicable rebates — federal STCs (zone-specific), state rebates (VIC Solar Homes, QLD Battery Booster, NSW PDRS, ACT Sustainable Household Scheme), and the federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program where eligible
- Average bill size — bigger bills generate larger savings; the scoring weights this so the result is realistic for your household
- DNSP export limits — your distributor's static or dynamic export cap, which affects feed-in revenue and battery economics
The score isn't an opinion. It's an output of these inputs, applied consistently to every suburb we cover. When two homes get different scores, the maths explains why.
Where we cover
SolarScorecard covers all of Australia at the suburb level, with deep editorial coverage of the country's highest-traffic solar markets. Our most-detailed city analyses, with locally-specific DNSP rules, climate considerations, and rebate stacking guidance:
Victoria (VIC) — Melbourne, Geelong, Mornington Peninsula
New South Wales (NSW) — Sydney, Newcastle, Central Coast, Wollongong
Queensland (QLD) — Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Logan, Ipswich, Toowoomba, Cairns, Townsville
South Australia (SA) — Adelaide
Western Australia (WA) — Perth
Tasmania (TAS) — Hobart
Australian Capital Territory (ACT) — Canberra
Northern Territory (NT) — Darwin
Every suburb in every state is supported in the scorecard tool itself, even those without dedicated editorial pages — your suburb's specific peak sun hours, DNSP, and tariff data are loaded from the same data sources regardless.
What's new in solar for 2026
The Australian residential solar landscape changed materially in late 2025 and 2026. The headline shifts:
- Cheaper Home Batteries Program — federal rebate of up to ~$2,400 on a 10kWh battery, stackable with state programs. This is the single biggest battery economics shift in years.
- Battery rebate stacks — Victoria, NSW, ACT, and Queensland all run state-level battery incentives that combine with the federal rebate. Eligible households can stack 2–3 sources, often $5,000+ off a 10–13kWh battery.
- Updated feed-in tariffs — most state minimums have decreased through 2025–26, which makes self-consumption economics more important than export. Battery sizing matters more now than it did 3 years ago.
- STC step-down continues — the federal STC rebate reduces by ~7% each year through 2030. Installing earlier locks in higher upfront discounts; waiting costs roughly $200–$400 per year of delay on a typical 6.6kW system.
- Dynamic export rollout — most metro DNSPs are progressively replacing static 5kW caps with dynamic export connections, often allowing 7–10kW effective export. Worth asking your installer to apply.
The savings number you see in your scorecard already factors in 2026 rebate stacks, current FIT rates, and zone-specific STC entitlements. We update the scoring engine when policy shifts.
Why people use SolarScorecard
Most "free solar quotes" tools online are lead-generation funnels. You enter your details and get called by 4–5 sales reps over the next week. We're explicitly not that.
SolarScorecard gives you a number, the reasoning behind it, and the option — if you ask — to be matched with one vetted local installer for a quote. No phone tree, no sales pitch, no spam, no lead reselling. The whole assessment runs in your browser and takes about a minute.
If our score says solar isn't worth it for your specific property — bad orientation, heavy shading, very small bill — we tell you that. We'd rather you make a confident "no" decision based on real numbers than be sold a system that doesn't pay back. That positioning is unusual in this industry, and it's the reason most of our user growth comes from word of mouth.
Quick links
Useful starting points if you're just getting started: