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When people ask me,
“Finn, what do solar panels cost these days?”
…they’re usually not asking how much an individual panel costs – knowing the price of a single panel isn’t very useful.
What they usually want to know is,
“What will it cost me to put a decent-sized solar power system on my roof?”
This page will answer that question first, and then get into individual panel prices later.
I’ll also explain how much of your solar system’s cost goes to the panels themselves, and the effect of the solar panel rebate.
Over the past two years, 1465 Aussies have told us what they paid for a 10 kW solar system. Over that time, the price averaged around $10,000 fully installed, down from around $11,000 in 2023. This is despite the solar rebate decreasing on both January 1, 2024, and January 1, 2025.
Pro-tip: In our Price Explorer tool, you can change the system sizes, check pricing on a state-level, and apply filters like specific panel & inverter brands to this graph
But $10,000 is the average. People paid from $7,000 to $20,000 for their 10 kW systems. So what causes the price differential?
The #1 factor is what kind of solar panel installer you choose to go with – from crazy cheap to wildly expensive.
Let me explain…
I’ve learned you can generally put solar installers in 5 categories:
Do you want your installer to be:
SolarQuotes only ever deals with installers of type 2, 3 and 4. If we ever give you quotes from a type 1 or a type 5 installer, reach out to us — something went wrong!
But it’s not just the installer you choose. Other factors will determine the cost of your solar system, too:
The price of your new solar system will, of course, depend on how big the installation is. That is how many kilowatts (kW) of solar panels you install.
Here’s the typical range people paid for different-sized solar systems – but as a simple rule of thumb, budget ~$1,000 per kW installed for a decent quality system – dully installed on your home.
The brand of panels you choose influences your system cost.
10 kW of ‘Rolls-Royce’ panels such as REC can easily be double the cost of good budget panels like Jinko. I’ll go into premium vs. budget panel costs and whether to pay the extra in great detail later….
Another element that contributes to the overall cost of your system is the inverter brand. Choosing a premium 10 kW inverter brand, like Fronius can easily add $1,500 to the system cost over a good budget unit such as Goodwe. You can find a cost overview of solar inverters sold in Australia here.
Installers charge extra for:
The further you live from your nearest installer, the more expensive it can get. Some installers charge an extra travel fee for anything further than 80 km.
If your installer needs to travel so far they require accommodation for an overnight stay, that can raise the cost significantly.
Like any business, solar installers will also mark up their prices to cover their overheads. And they have to charge GST on the cost before rebates (so don’t freak out when the GST is more than 10% of the price paid!).
Which brings us nicely to:
When you buy solar in Australia, the government gives you an upfront discount at the point of sale—no paperwork, no waiting. This rebate is actually based on something called Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs).
Here’s how STCs work: your solar system generates clean energy, and the government rewards you for this by issuing STCs proportional to the system’s size (panel capacity in kW). Installers typically handle these certificates for you, immediately applying their value as a discount off your installation price.
Importantly, the rebate doesn’t depend on panel quality or brand, just on how much solar capacity you install. Simply put: the bigger your solar system, the more STCs you get, the bigger your rebate.
One thing to remember: the value of this rebate decreases slightly every January, as the government slowly winds the scheme down. Fortunately, solar panel prices have also been steadily falling, which helps offset that drop.
The solar panel brand you choose still affects the final system cost, but panel pricing has become so competitive that the difference between budget and premium panels is now much smaller than it used to be.
Let’s look at an example. A budget-friendly panel, like Jinko, might set you back around $130 per panel, whereas a premium panel like SunPower could easily cost over $290 each. That means your panel choice alone can create an extra cost difference of about $3,600 for a full 10 kW setup. And remember, that’s just panels—not counting inverters, installation, or anything else!
In 2026, the solar rebate will reduce the price of a 10 kW solar system by around $2,500 off the price at the point of sale. If you choose budget panels, the rebate could cover their entire cost:
The solar rebate can cover the cost of the solar panels if you pick a budget brand. However, that does not mean you get a free system!
However, when you choose premium panels, you are still paying for about half of the panel cost.
The solar rebate can cover the cost of the solar panels if you pick a budget brand. However, that does not mean you get a free system!
Why would anyone pay extra for premium panels? Well, you do get a few key benefits:
But look, most people don’t necessarily need the Rolls Royce of panels. If you’re budget-conscious, there are plenty of solid, value-for-money options out there. Brands like Jinko, Trina, and LONGi all deliver quality, reliability, and good performance—and are regularly installed by reputable installers across Australia.
Bottom line: Your panel brand choice can swing the total cost of your solar quote by a few thousand. Premium brands could be worth the extra spend (if you’re a solar snob like me)—but only if efficiency, longevity, and peace of mind matter a lot to you.
If you request a quote for a 10 kW system consisting of budget panels like Risen, the cost of that system can be broken down to something like this:
In the case of a budget brand system, the panels will only make up about 23% of the pre-rebate system cost. However, when we look at a 10 kW system consisting of the top-of-the-line REC Pure Alpha-RX, the panels take up around 37% of the entire system cost.
Remember: the rebate is not affected by your brand choice, but by your system size. This means that the Risen system gets the same point-of-sale discount as the REC system (about $3,000 for 10 kW).
This $3,000 discount translates to a 23% discount for the Risen system but only an 18% discount for the REC system.
To sum things up:
Still curious about your specific costs?
And if you’re ready to take the plunge:
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