Batteries With Your Solar? Some Regions Are Going All In
By Kristy Hoare on in Solar Battery Information
When I’m chatting with solar installers around the country, I always ask the same question:
“So… roughly what percentage of your installs include a battery?”
I’ve heard everything from 20% to 60%. And it started to feel more than just company-to-company variation. It felt regional.
So I dug into the 2025 data… and the numbers are telling.
A quick rewind
Ten years ago, grid-connected solar plus batteries basically weren’t a thing in New Zealand.
Then the first Tesla Powerwall landed and changed the tone of the conversation. Lithium-ion storage that wasn’t clunky, wasn’t industrial-looking, and actually felt usable. Add in a slick app and suddenly people weren’t just buying solar - they were buying control.
Now when a company tells me 40% of their installations include batteries, I genuinely think: wow.
That’s not fringe anymore. That’s mainstreaming.
So what does the data say?
I looked at all residential grid-connected solar installations completed in 2025 and compared two datasets - systems installed with batteries and systems installed without. The numbers come straight from the Electricity Authority.
And the regional differences are fascinating.
Gisborne – 76%
Gisborne leads the country by a long way. Three out of every four new solar systems there included a battery. Not hugely surprising. It’s one of the more remote regions, and it’s taken a battering in recent years from severe weather. When you’ve experienced outages, resilience shifts from “nice to have” to “non-negotiable”.
Hawke’s Bay – 53%
Hawke’s Bay sits just behind Gisborne. After Cyclone Gabrielle, I wrote stories about households that lost power for extended periods but were able to keep fridges running and devices charged because they had solar plus storage.
You don’t forget a storm like Cyclone Gabrielle that you experience quickly.
Southland - 41%
Hitting the highest rate in the South Island is Southland. From conversations with World Solar in Invercargill, there’s a real sense that Southlanders value energy resilience. It’s less about bells and whistles and more about keeping the lights on when it matters.
The laggards
Manawatu-Whanganui is currently sitting lower. But after the storms hitting them at the start of this year, I’d be very curious to see what the 2026 data looks like. These things often move after an event.
Canterbury is the lowest at 22%. Solar demand there is strong - very strong. My guess? A strong focus on reducing power bills. When electricity prices bite, ROI thinking dominates. “How fast does this pay back?” often wins over “What happens if the grid goes down?”
A couple of important notes
The Electricity Authority only started properly surveying this in 2023.
Also, this is grid-connected data only. There are plenty of off-grid solar + battery systems around New Zealand, but those aren’t captured in this dataset.
So what’s driving it?
Two big forces:
- Resilience thinking – Severe weather is changing behaviour. When the lights go out, people remember.
- Economics – As battery prices continue to fall, the maths improves.
But there’s tension here.
If electricity prices keep climbing, solar-only may remain attractive as the quickest payback play. If storms and outages increase, resilience may dominate decision-making.
My gut says battery uptake will keep rising.
We’re past the point where storage feels exotic. It’s increasingly feeling like the natural companion to solar - like ordering the burger and saying “yes” when they ask, “do you want fries with that?”
And region by region, you can see how lived experience is shaping that decision.