National Solar

Disclaimer

Geoscape Australia believes this publication to be correct at the time of printing and does not accept responsibility for any consequences arising from the use of the information herein. Readers should rely on their own skill and judgement to apply information to particular issues.

This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission of Geoscape Australia.

Overview

National Solar is a national digital dataset representing photovoltaic solar panel information across urban areas for each state and territory of Australia. The National Solar dataset has relationships with the Buildings and G-NAF products produced by Geoscape Australia.

National Solar is populated from two different capture sources and the population of the product schema will vary between these as follows:

• Urban (satellite source) - areas with a population greater than 200, or with significant industrial/commercial activity in a visual assessment, digitised from satellite imagery.

• Urban (aerial source) - areas with a population greater than 200, or with significant industrial/commercial activity in a visual assessment, digitised from aerial imagery.

Geoscape Australia welcomes your feedback on the National Solar product. We also publish regular product development updates on our website (www.geoscape.com.au).

Release Summary

This product was released to customers on 31 March 2026 with data extracted on 26 March 2026.

• This release is a full national data population for Version 1.2 of the National Solar product, described by the National Solar Product Guide v1.2.

Any issues that have been identified for this release are described in the Issues section.

This release includes updates for the areas listed in the table below.

Locations of updated areas by State

State	Location	Urban Area (km2)
ACT	Australian Capital Territory	498
NSW	Albury City Council	73
NSW	Armidale Regional Council	26
NSW	Ballina Shire Council	31
NSW	Bayside Council	3
NSW	Blue Mountains City Council	84
NSW	Camden Council	19
NSW	Campbelltown City Council	41
NSW	Central Coast Council	137
NSW	Cessnock City Council	20
NSW	Georges River Council	15
NSW	Goulburn Mulwaree Council	30
NSW	Hawkesbury City Council	64
NSW	Ku-ring-gai Council	24
NSW	Lake Macquarie City Council	236
NSW	Lismore City Council	37
NSW	Maitland City Council	87
NSW	Mid-Coast Council	6
NSW	Newcastle City Council	119
NSW	Northern Beaches Council	63
NSW	Port Stephens Council	94
NSW	Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council	76
NSW	Shellharbour City Council	42
NSW	Shoalhaven City Council	45
NSW	Sutherland Shire Council	98
NSW	Tamworth Regional Council	38
NSW	The Council of the Shire of Hornsby	55
NSW	The Hills Shire Council	2
NSW	Tweed Shire Council	121
NSW	Wollondilly Shire Council	5
NSW	Wollongong City Council	162
NSW	Yass Valley Council	2
NT	Darwin Municipality	93
NT	Darwin Waterfront Precinct Municipality	1
NT	Litchfield Municipality	203
NT	Northern Territory Rates Act (Prescribed Area A) Area	25
NT	Palmerston Municipality	60
QLD	Brisbane City	80
QLD	Gold Coast City	439
QLD	Ipswich City	1
QLD	Lockyer Valley Regional	1
QLD	Logan City	650
QLD	Redland City	179
QLD	Scenic Rim Regional	95
QLD	Toowoomba Regional	159
VIC	Wodonga City	57
Total		4,396

^ Location names are derived from intersection with the most recent Local Government Area dataset.

Spatial files of the updated areas are available upon request via support@geoscape.com.au.

Change Notifications

Record decreases in solar_solar_address table

There have been changes to the building_address table at multi-address sites. This has resulted in decreases to the solar_solar_address table for the March 2026 release.

Changes to address_pid in solar_address table

There have been changes relating to the way addresses are linked to buildings in building_address. The change caused some address_pids to change, even though the building is still linked to an address with the same address label as the previous release. This occurred due to a difference in the method used to link buildings and addresses for National Buildings v4. This change has resulted in count decreases in the solar_solar_address table.

Versioning Update (Starting June 2026)

Beginning June 2026, all data products will transition to a standardised versioning format: MAJOR-MINOR-EXTRACT (e.g., 004-000-001). This approach provides a clear and consistent structure, making it easier for users to identify product versions and understand update levels at a glance. The change is intended to improve transparency, reduce ambiguity, and support more efficient integration and usage of our data products.

Implementation of New Zip File Naming and Packaging Standards (Starting August 2026)

As part of ongoing improvements to product consistency and packaging standards, updates to zip file naming conventions and internal packaging structure will be implemented, starting in August 2026.

Zip File Naming

Two standard naming patterns will be used, depending on whether an extract contains spatial information:

• Spatial Tables:

{PRODUCT-NAME}_{RELEASE YYYYMM}_{REGION}_{CRS}_{FORMAT}_{VERSION MAJOR-MINOR-EXTRACT}.zip

• Aspatial (Insights) Tables:

{PRODUCT-NAME}_{RELEASE YYYYMM}_{REGION}_NODATUM_{FORMAT}_{VERSION MAJOR-MINOR-EXTRACT}.zip

Packaging Structure

All zip files will follow a simplified, flat directory layout:

• No nested folders

• The primary data file will be located at the top level of the zip.

Note: The product package will no longer include supporting content.txt files.

These changes ensure consistent packaging across all products, reduce complexity, and support improved automation and user experience.

Reduced assignment of Polycrystalline solar_type

Across recent releases, we observed a consistent pattern of existing solar polygons changing their solar_type from Polycrystalline to Monocrystalline:

• March 2025: ~ 200,000 polygons

• June 2025: ~ 400,000 polygons

• September 2025: ~ 500,000 polygons

• December 2025: ~ 500,000 polygons

• March 2026: ~ 200,000 polygons

We are working closely with our data supplier to ensure this attribute is assigned accurately and reflects real‑world conditions.

Issues

New Issues

No new issues.

Resolved Issues

No resolved issues.

Known Issues

Solar polygons cut off at the edge of capture areas

Where a solar polygon is captured that crosses the edge of a capture area, the portion of the solar array that is outside will not be included in the product. This occurs in a small number of instances and will result in smaller than real-world solar_area and daily_estimated_power values.

Incorrect capture of solar polygons

Solar hot water heating, swimming pool heating and other rooftop features such as air-conditioning units can incorrectly be captured as solar polygons. These features are removed from the data where possible as they do not represent photovoltaic solar. Geoscape intends to continue to improve our processes to reduce these occurrences over time.

Solar type accuracy for low-resolution capture

Where a solar polygon is captured using imagery with resolution greater than or equal to 10cm, there is a reduction in the correctness of the solar_type classification. This often causes monocrystalline panels to be assigned with a ‘Thin-film’ solar_type value as individual panels cannot be differentiated in the imagery. Daily estimated power outputs for these records will be lower than the real-world value.

Future Considerations

This section outlines enhancements or changes under consideration, but not planned into a specific release. For further details on future initiatives, please contact Geoscape Support.

Z-values

Geoscape is considering including z-values for the solar table that would provide heights for each vertex of a solar polygon. There is potential for this information to be used to derive other attributes, such as the aspect of the solar panel.

Aspect

Geoscape is considering including an ‘aspect’ attribute that would describe the direction that the solar panel is facing. This attribute could potentially be used to improve estimates of the power generated by the solar array.

Improvements to Daily Estimated Power

Geoscape intends to further improve the daily_estimated_power attribute. For this improvement we would potentially assess the impact of the:

• resolution of the imagery used to capture the solar polygon

• aspect of the solar polygon

• roof_shape of the building related to the solar polygon

• surrounding heights of buildings, trees and other features such as mountains that could potentially shade the solar array and reduce the power output

Adjustments to this estimate will be made from the results of this assessment.

Solar polygons that are not related to a building

Geoscape intends to include solar panel polygons that are not rooftop solar. These panels often relate to solar farms and are currently excluded from Solar as they do not relate to a building. The intention would be to link these solar panels to an address.

Annex A – Release Counts

Additional, retired and total National Solar counts and the percent change to the previous release have been listed in the table below.

TABLE		ACT	NSW	NT	OT	QLD	SA	TAS	VIC	WA	TOTAL
solar	Additional	0	39,129	0	0	59,661	7,605	79,525	382,587	17,512	586,019
	Retired	0	9,305	0	0	13,654	0	0	247,414	0	270,373
	Updated	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Total	129,928	1,706,714	43,459	0	1,855,848	635,206	79,525	1,251,328	1,029,188	6,731,196
	% Change	0.00%	1.78%	0.00%	0.00%	2.54%	1.21%	100.00%	12.11%	1.73%	4.92%
solar_solar_address	Total	298,010	3,239,124	82,959	0	2,337,873	813,349	93,818	2,795,132	1,538,812	11,199,077
solar_address	Total	202,981	3,583,973	76,541	52	2,235,473	812,943	240,737	3,119,614	1,181,368	11,453,682
solar_building	Total	240,653	4,246,052	118,337	337	3,103,461	1,350,208	436,195	4,020,779	1,760,302	15,276,324