Solar¶
Disclaimer
Overview¶
Solar is a national digital dataset representing photovoltaic solar panel information across urban areas for each state and territory of Australia. The Solar dataset has relationships with the Buildings and G-NAF products produced by Geoscape Australia.
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 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 30 June 2025 with data extracted on 21 June 2025.
This release is a full national data population for Version 1.2 of the Solar product, described by the 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) |
---|---|---|
VIC |
Banyule City |
24 |
VIC |
Bayside City |
15 |
VIC |
Boroondara City |
60 |
VIC |
Brimbank City |
73 |
VIC |
Darebin City |
22 |
VIC |
Glen Eira City |
37 |
VIC |
Greater Dandenong City |
1 |
VIC |
Greater Geelong City |
59 |
VIC |
Hobsons Bay City |
63 |
VIC |
Hume City |
13 |
VIC |
Kingston City |
4 |
VIC |
Knox City |
54 |
VIC |
Macedon Ranges Shire |
411 |
VIC |
Manningham City |
88 |
VIC |
Maribyrnong City |
31 |
VIC |
Maroondah City |
28 |
VIC |
Melbourne City |
38 |
VIC |
Melton City |
32 |
VIC |
Merri-Bek City |
20 |
VIC |
Mitchell Shire |
217 |
VIC |
Monash City |
81 |
VIC |
Moonee Valley City |
32 |
VIC |
Moorabool Shire |
10 |
VIC |
Nillumbik Shire |
4 |
VIC |
Port Phillip City |
21 |
VIC |
Stonnington City |
26 |
VIC |
Whitehorse City |
64 |
VIC |
Whittlesea City |
232 |
VIC |
Wyndham City |
447 |
VIC |
Yarra City |
20 |
WA |
City of Albany |
48 |
WA |
City of Armadale |
447 |
WA |
City of Bayswater |
35 |
WA |
City of Belmont |
40 |
WA |
City of Canning |
65 |
WA |
City of Cockburn |
150 |
WA |
City of Fremantle |
20 |
WA |
City of Gosnells |
99 |
WA |
City of Joondalup |
99 |
WA |
City of Kalamunda |
278 |
WA |
City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder |
40 |
WA |
City of Kwinana |
120 |
WA |
City of Mandurah |
92 |
WA |
City of Melville |
53 |
WA |
City of Nedlands |
20 |
WA |
City of Perth |
20 |
WA |
City of Rockingham |
212 |
WA |
City of South Perth |
20 |
WA |
City of Stirling |
105 |
WA |
City of Subiaco |
6 |
WA |
City of Swan |
913 |
WA |
City of Vincent |
11 |
WA |
City of Wanneroo |
249 |
WA |
Shire of Beverley |
4 |
WA |
Shire of Boddington |
6 |
WA |
Shire of Chittering |
221 |
WA |
Shire of Gingin |
1 |
WA |
Shire of Mundaring |
335 |
WA |
Shire of Murray |
462 |
WA |
Shire of Northam |
6 |
WA |
Shire of Peppermint Grove |
1 |
WA |
Shire of Serpentine-Jarrahdale |
559 |
WA |
Shire of Toodyay |
64 |
WA |
Shire of Wandering |
99 |
WA |
Town of Bassendean |
10 |
WA |
Town of Cambridge |
22 |
WA |
Town of Claremont |
5 |
WA |
Town of Cottesloe |
4 |
WA |
Town of East Fremantle |
4 |
WA |
Town of Mosman Park |
4 |
WA |
Town of Victoria Park |
18 |
Total |
7,194 |
^ 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¶
Reduced assignment of Polycrystalline solar_type¶
In the March 2025 release, we become aware of approximately 200,000 previously existing solar polygons that have changed solar_type from ‘Polycrystalline’ to ‘Monocrystalline’. This trend has continued for the June 2025 release with approximately 400,000 affected. We are working with our data supplier to ensure that the assignment of this attribute is consistent and matches the real world.
Issues¶
New Issues¶
No new issues.
Resolved Issues¶
No resolved issues to note.
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.
Annex A – Release Counts¶
Additional, retired and total 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 |