What does solar cost to install in New Zealand?

A 5kW system costs about $11,500 installed, takes roughly $1,200 a year off the power bill, and pays for itself in 7 to 10 years. Whether 5kW is the right size for you turns mostly on whether you drive an EV, because a household without one is what EECA sized it against. A battery is the harder call, and on the numbers it usually does not pay. The cheaper way to store your own power is probably already sitting in your hot water cupboard.

Last reviewed 2 August 2026. These are researched ranges from the sources listed at the foot of this page, not quotes. What you pay depends on the job, the site and who you hire.

Installed cost by system size

These are EECA's figures, not an installer's, and they include the panels, the inverter, installation and GST. Most published solar prices come from someone selling solar, and those tend to leave things out. If a quote lands well under this table, ask what is missing.

Quotes carry two different kW figures. The sizes below are panel capacity, the number that matches the panel counts.

The inverter is usually rated lower, and that gap is deliberate. Panels rarely reach their lab rating on a roof, so a larger array keeps the inverter working for more of the day, at the cost of a little output trimmed at midday. Fronius allows up to one and a half times an inverter's rating in panels.

Item	Typical	Range	Unit
Small system, around 3kW (about 7 panels) Enough for a smaller household that is not drawing much during the day.	$8,500	$7,500 to $10,000	installed
Medium system, around 5kW (about 12 panels) EECA match this size to an average three-person household with electric appliances and no EV.	$11,500	$10,000 to $13,500	installed
Large system, around 10kW (about 24 panels) The size to look at if you have an EV, or expect one. Ask which inverter comes with it, because export limits cap the inverter, not the panels.	$20,000	$17,500 to $23,000	installed
Small system with a 5kWh battery The battery EECA match to a system this size.	$13,500	$11,000 to $17,000	installed
Medium system with a 10kWh battery The usual pairing, and the one most quotes will show you.	$21,500	$17,000 to $27,500	installed
Large system with a 20kWh battery A serious amount of storage, and the price reflects it.	$40,000	$31,500 to $51,000	installed
Battery added to any system The range EECA quote. Their own figures work out at about $1,000 for each kWh of storage, so a big battery lands above this.		$5,000 to $15,000	add-on

Should you add a battery?

A battery is the biggest single add-on in any solar quote, and the one to think hardest about. If you are buying solar to save money, it usually works against you, and the arithmetic shows why.

A 5kW system typically costs $11,500 and takes about $1,200 a year off your bill. Add a 10kWh battery and the price nearly doubles, to $21,500. The saving cannot double with it, because a battery generates nothing. It only holds power you would otherwise have sold to the grid.

EECA put the gain from storage at 1 to 2 per cent of your return, and Consumer NZ reached the same conclusion, that a battery usually lengthens payback. Neither of them sells batteries.

None of this means don't buy one. Backup through an outage, an empty house all day, a plan that pays well at peak: those are real reasons. Just be clear which one is yours before you sign. If the reason is simply that you hate watching power go out to the grid for a few cents, read the next section first.

Item	Typical	Range	Unit
Battery storage, per kWh of capacity Worked out from EECA's own numbers, which come to $1,000 a kWh at every size they list.	$1,000	$700 to $1,400	per kWh
A 5kWh battery, the smallest EECA price Sized for a 3kW system.	$5,000	$3,500 to $7,000	add-on
A 10kWh battery Sized for a 5kW system, which is the pairing you will see most often.	$10,000	$7,000 to $14,000	add-on
A 20kWh battery Sized for a 10kW system. This runs past the $5,000 to $15,000 range EECA quote elsewhere, which their figures do not stretch to at this capacity.	$20,000	$14,000 to $28,000	add-on

The cheaper alternative to a battery

Solar pays best when you use the power yourself, because what a retailer pays you to export is less than what you pay to buy it back. A hot water cylinder is the cheapest way to close that gap, and you already own one.

James Le Page, EECA's lead technical adviser, calls an electric cylinder "kind of a budget battery". The reason it works is scale. EECA put water heating at about a third of a household's energy use, so shifting it into the middle of the day moves a large block of demand under your own roof.

A timer is the cost-effective option. It switches the cylinder on across the sunniest hours, whether or not the sun turns up. A smart switch costs more but does the job better: it watches what your panels are about to send to the grid and pushes that surplus into the cylinder instead. EECA name both as a low-cost way to lift what solar saves you.

Either is an electrician's job, and some installers fold one into the base price, so check whether yours is already in there before paying for it twice. Whichever you go with, get it priced next to any battery you are offered.

Item	Typical	Range	Unit
Hot water timer, supplied and installed Many installers put a basic timer in with a new system at no extra charge, so ask before you pay for one. On its own it is a cheap unit plus an electrician's time.	$300	$150 to $600	installed
Smart switch or diverter, supplied and installed Cheaper fitted alongside a new system, while the electrician is already on site, and dearer as a retrofit. A relay style switch sits at the bottom of this range, a full diverter at the top.	$800	$500 to $1,200	installed

What you get back

Where you live moves the saving less than people assume. EECA put Southland at about $1,047 a year and Marlborough at $1,467, with everywhere else in between. The 7 to 10 year payback holds as long as you use most of what you generate during the day.

We are not going to pretend this page can tell you your own payback. That depends on your roof's angle and direction, and on when your household actually uses power. EECA have built a calculator that models all three. Run your place through it, then use that number to check whatever an installer quotes you.

Item	Typical	Range	Unit
Annual saving on your power bill Southland at the bottom, Marlborough at the top, on EECA's regional modelling. EECA put the national figure at $1,000 or more. Higher again if you can use more of what you make during the day.	$1,200	$1,047 to $1,467	per year

Estimate an installed solar system

What you pay to get it on the roof: panels, inverter and installation. EECA price a 7 panel system at $8,500, 12 panels at $11,500 and 24 panels at $20,000, roughly 0.4kW a panel, and the sizes in between are worked out proportionally from those three. What you'll save is a different question, and EECA answer that one better than we can.

Number of panels (panels)

Battery storage

Hot water control

Indicative range

Choose your options above

A rough range based on EECA's figures, not a quote, and not a prediction of what you will save. Get at least two written quotes. Ask each installer what self-consumption rate they used, because that one assumption can make a payback look years shorter than it is.

What moves the price

Roof access. EECA list this as a direct cost factor. A single storey with room for a ladder is cheaper to work on than a steep two storey that needs scaffolding before anyone gets near the roof.
System size and storage. The two biggest numbers in any quote, and they are separate decisions. Size the panels first, from what your household uses in daylight, then decide on storage.
Roof direction and shade. Consumer NZ's advice is a north facing roof in full sun. Shade matters most in the middle of the day, when panels do most of their generating, so a tree across them at noon costs far more than one across them at 4pm.
Roof condition. Panels last decades, so a roof near the end of its life should be replaced before they go on. Consumer NZ make the same point: nobody wants to lift a working array off after three years to fix the iron underneath.
When you use power. Not just how much. Solar pays best when someone is home drawing power while the sun is up, and an EV or an electric hot water cylinder helps, because both can be set to run in the middle of the day.
Your export limit. Since May 2026 the default is 10kW, replacing an older regime where some companies capped houses at 5kW, and a few offer a flexible limit instead. It caps what you push to the grid at any one moment, not how many panels you may fit.
Panel warranty. Two numbers matter and quotes rarely set them side by side: the product warranty covers the panel itself failing, the performance warranty guarantees output years out. Two quotes for the same roof can match on one and differ sharply on the other, so ask for both.

Checking these figures yourself

Every price on this page comes from EECA, not from anyone who installs solar. For what you would actually save, run your own numbers through their calculator, which accounts for your roof and your household. We don't list buy-back rates: they change too often, and vary too much between retailers and plans, for a page like this to keep them honest.

Open EECA's solar calculator

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Sources

Where these figures come from. We link the primary source wherever one exists.

EECA, breaking down home solar costs and savings : Every installed price on this page: 3kW $8,500, 5kW $11,500, 10kW $20,000, and the with-battery totals of $13,500, $21,500 and $40,000. Stated as including standard install costs and GST. Also the $5,000 to $15,000 battery add-on range, the $1,000 or more typical annual saving, the 7 to 10 year payback, and the regional spread from $1,047 in Southland to $1,467 in Marlborough.
EECA, planning the right home solar system : Systems of 3 to 5kW produce around 50 to 80 per cent of the electricity used by an average three-person household with all electric appliances but no EVs, which is the basis for the 5kW sizing note on this page. An average New Zealand household uses about 7,000kWh a year, aligning with a medium sized system, and EECA advise sizing for future needs such as an electric vehicle. Adding a timer or diverter to an electric hot water cylinder is described as a low-cost way to boost savings from solar, while batteries typically extend the payback period.
Fronius, Primo GEN24 and GEN24 Plus datasheet, 3 to 10kW : Maximum PV generator output of 9,000 Wpeak on the 6.0kW model, 7,500 on the 5.0kW and 6,900 on the 4.6kW, each exactly one and a half times the inverter's AC rated power. This is the manufacturer's own limit, and it shows that fitting more panel capacity than the inverter is rated for is designed behaviour rather than an error in a quote.
EECA, compare common home water heating options : Water heating accounts for about a third of a New Zealand household's energy use, second only to space heating. This is why shifting the cylinder into daylight hours captures a large share of a solar system's output.
RNZ, you have put solar on the roof, but will you get the returns you expect : James Le Page, EECA lead technical adviser, describing an electric hot water cylinder as "kind of a budget battery" because it stores energy, and recommending diverters so households are not feeding electricity back to the grid at a low price. Also EECA figures of roughly $1,000 a year saved and a typical 5kW system at about $12,000 installed.
CPS Solar, solar diverter for hot water : A Green CATCH hot water diverter installed for under $1,000 by a New Zealand solar installer. Supplier pricing, cited because EECA publish no price for either device. Sets the typical figure in the smart switch row.
Cellpower, Green CatchPower solar diverter : The Green CatchPower diverter unit listed at $800 by a New Zealand electrical supplier, supply only.
Taranaki Solar, Catchpower PV diverter : The same diverter listed at NZ$850 supply only by a second New Zealand installer, which corroborates the Cellpower figure and puts the top of the smart switch row at $1,200 once an electrician is added.
Eurotech NZ, Bluetooth hot water cylinder control kit : App-scheduled hot water cylinder control from $283 for the unit, rising to $795 for higher rated and connected variants, and stated as needing a registered electrician to install. A timer is a materially cheaper device than a diverter, which is why the two now have separate rows.
EECA, understanding the value of residential solar PV and storage : Solar returns roughly 6 to 14 per cent a year depending on location. A battery can add 1 to 2 per cent to that but remains too expensive for many New Zealand households. Hot water diverters and timers improve returns at a lower upfront cost than storage.
EECA, solar power calculator : Payback modelling from NIWA SolarView sun-path data, roof orientation, roof slope and household power use. Built by the EPECentre at the University of Canterbury. It deliberately does not cover installation cost, which is why this page covers install and links out for payback.
Consumer NZ, are solar panels right for your home : Adding a battery usually lengthens the payback period, and solar without one generally gives the best return. Panels work best on north facing roofs in full sun. The roof needs to be in good condition first. A good installer checks your latest power bill and asks about household size and major loads such as an electric car or pool.
Consumer NZ, in the market for solar power, do not fall for these tricks : Quoting software lets an installer set the assumed self-consumption rate. Consumer NZ found the same system quoted honestly at the standard rate and dishonestly at 100 per cent self-consumption, which cut the stated payback from 15 years to under 9 without showing on the final quote. Their advice: ask what numbers were fed into the software, supply 12 months of bills, and get multiple quotes.
Electricity Authority, shift to 10kW export limits : The rule requiring distributors to set a default 10kW export limit for small scale distributed generation came into effect on 11 May 2026, replacing a discretionary approach under which some distributors applied blanket 5kW residential limits.
Electricity Authority, new rules encourage more solar to networks : Lines companies may offer a dynamic or flexible export limit for residential connections as an alternative to the fixed 10kW limit.
EECA, best practice guidance for residential solar PV and battery storage systems : For all grid-tied systems, both the installing electrician and the inspector are required to hold an additional EWRB licence endorsement for mains parallel generation systems.
Electrical Workers Registration Board, endorsed mains parallel generation systems : The endorsed registration class covering mains parallel generation, which is what a grid-connected solar system is. Stand-alone systems that do not generate in parallel with the mains supply are not covered by it.