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.

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