Best Solar Panels In Australia 2026: Installer’s Choice Awards

Every year, we survey SolarQuotes installers about their favourite solar panel. For the 2026 edition of the Installer’s Choice Awards, we asked them:

“If you were putting solar panels on your own roof today, which brand would you choose? Not the house of a customer. Not a display home. Not a hypothetical stranger you’ll never see again. Your own roof, your own money and a system you’ll be living with for decades.”

Which Solar Panel Is Best For Australian Homes?

For the second year running, Aiko came out on top, attracting 28% of installer votes and comfortably outpacing the rest of the field.

Jinko and SunPower claimed the remaining podium positions, with REC and Trina Solar rounding out the top five.

The result is based on the votes of 125 SolarQuotes-vetted installers who responded to this year’s survey.

And before anyone asks – the results aren’t influenced by advertising, sponsorships or manufacturer incentives.

SolarQuotes does not accept payments, kickbacks, favours or other inducements from manufacturers in exchange for favourable survey results or coverage.

First Place: Aiko Solar

Aiko is the favourite solar panel brand among SolarQuotes installers.

Aiko’s win is a remarkable result for a company who only officially launched in Australia in 2024.

The company’s appeal appears to come down to how it’s priced, how it’s built and, above all, its back-contact cell design.

The company specialises in back-contact solar cells, where the electrical contacts sit on the rear of each cell rather than the front.

In theory, that design reduces shading losses, improves efficiency and creates a cleaner-looking panel. It’s also why Aiko’s panels consistently rank among the most efficient residential solar panels available today.

The company recently released a 500-watt panel that still fits within the standard sub-two-metre panel size and reaches around 25% efficiency — pushing the limits of what silicon solar technology can achieve.

Installers also seem to like the fact that Aiko delivers all that performance without carrying the price tag you’d normally expect.

The company also maintains an Australian support office in Melbourne, something many installers value when recommending products to customers.

Not everyone is convinced by every claim the company makes. Aiko’s partial-shading claims have attracted debate within the industry, and its parent company recently paid more than US$200 million to settle a patent dispute with SunPower and Maxeon relating to back-contact solar cell technology.

Whatever installers think about those issues, they clearly haven’t stopped them from voting for Aiko.

Second Place: Jinko Solar

2026 SolarQuotes Installer Choice Awards – Best Solar Panel 2nd place – Jinko

Coming in second place is Jinko Solar with 14% of the vote.

If Aiko is the new kid on the block, Jinko is the established heavyweight.

Jinko has been the world’s largest solar panel manufacturer by volume for five years running and remains one of the most recognisable names in the industry.

Its Tiger Neo range has been particularly successful. According to the company, more than 200 gigawatts of Tiger Neo panels have been shipped worldwide, making it arguably the most popular solar panel ever produced.

Jinko’s panels use TOPCon technology, which is generally cheaper to manufacture than back-contact designs while still delivering excellent performance.

That combination of performance, reliability and sharp pricing continues to win plenty of fans among installers.

Third Place: SunPower

2026 SolarQuotes Installer Choice Awards – Best Solar Panel 3rd place – SunPower

Rounding out the podium is SunPower with 11% of installer votes.

That result might raise a few eyebrows.

The SunPower business in the USA (a large retailer that installed SunPower panels) entered bankruptcy proceedings in 2024, leading many to assume it had disappeared for good. Since then, the SunPower brand and Maxeon have been acquired by TCL, a Chinese company worth tens of billions of dollars.

TCL will continue to make high-end SunPower branded panels. They’ve told me, in Australia, these will be sold only via installers they trust to do a good job, whilst the cheaper TCL branded panels will also be sold in Australia but through the wholesalers for all installers.

What hasn’t changed is the reputation of the technology itself.

SunPower panels have long been regarded as some of the best-built solar panels on the market, with exceptionally low reported failure rates and warranties extending to 40 years on some models.

This year’s result suggests installers still have plenty of confidence in the brand’s future.

We’re interested to see how SunPower fares in the coming years under its new ownership, which recently issued a legal threat to SolarQuotes, partly because they didn’t appreciate their TCL Solar range be described as “low cost” on our review page. Hopefully, SunPower panels continue to be less fragile than the company that now owns them.

An Industry Under Pressure

One of the more surprising themes to emerge from this year’s awards is that while solar panels continue to improve, the companies making them are facing some serious challenges.

Solar panel prices have fallen dramatically in recent years, creating fierce competition among manufacturers.

For consumers, that’s largely been good news. Solar panels have become both better and cheaper.

For manufacturers, it’s a very different story. Even some of the biggest names in solar are operating on razor-thin margins, and in some cases at a loss.

How that eventually shakes out remains to be seen.

The Best Solar Panels Available

Congratulations to Aiko on taking out top spot in the 2026 SolarQuotes Installer’s Choice Awards for solar panels.

The results also highlight the strength of today’s solar panel market. Whether installers favour Aiko’s back-contact technology, Jinko’s proven value or SunPower’s build quality, there are plenty of quality options available.

If you’re comparing solar panels for your own home, check out SolarQuotes’ Solar Panel Comparison Table, where you can compare efficiency, warranties, performance and more from many of the brands featured in this year’s awards.

Stay tuned in the coming weeks as we reveal the winners of the other categories: best inverter, best solar battery, best home EV charger and best hot water heat pump.

Or if you’re ready to pull the trigger on getting solar, get up to three quotes from our vetted network of installers.