Australia mulls battery rebate scheme for 1m systems by 2030

Independent MP Kylea Tink has called on the Australian government to fund a national battery rebate program.

The proposal, made on Nov. 19, 2024, came on the back of an 8,000-signature petition driven by independent, community-based organisation Solar Citizens, which wants a federal subsidy to drive the rapid rollout of small-scale battery storage.

“Solar panel use across our country has soared, currently accounting for around 11% of Australia’s electricity supply, yet, frustratingly, as feed-in tariffs – that is, the amount households are paid for excess solar [fed] into the grid – have dropped,” said Tink. “Excess energy generated during the middle of the day is not being leveraged.

“The integrated systems plan modelled by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has shown 8 GW capacity of consumer energy storage by 2030 is needed to achieve renewable energy targets.”

Tink said that figure could be achieved if roughly one million extra homes had not just their solar panels but batteries installed as well.

Solar Citizens National Campaign Director Joel Pringle said Australia’s home solar uptake is world-leading and, with batteries, households could generate and use cheap, clean energy to replace aging coal-fired power stations.

“Rooftop solar combined with [household] behind-the-meter battery storage ensures households have access to clean energy day and night and can save money on their electricity bills straight away and every day for years to come,” said Pringle. “To keep energy bills low, we need a substantial subsidy for household batteries included as an extension to the successful small-scale renewable energy scheme (SRES). Solar Citizens calls on the major parties to adopt a target of one million batteries by 2030, with incentives on offer for both free-standing homes and apartments, whether they have rooftop solar or not.”

A New South Wales battery subsidy launched on Nov. 1, 2024 ties in the state’s peak-demand reduction scheme (PDRS) and installers must provide discounts based on conditional, tradable PDRS certificates.

The Australian Capital Territory offers interest free loans for sustainable household upgrades, including battery installations, while Victoria is offering interest-free solar battery loans of up to AUD 8,800 ($5,730) through June 30, 2025.

The Northern Territory offers a home and business battery scheme offering grans of AUD 400 per kWh of storage system capacity, up to AUD 5,000.

More than 250,000 household batteries have been installed nationwide, with 57,000 added in 2023.

Queensland’s battery booster program, which offered AUD 4,000 subsidies, closed in May 2024.

“Yet the kicker in that participation is that this opportunity seems to be very much determined by a household’s own financial capacity, and this is where I see we need the federal government to step in to ensure equity for all,” said MP Tink.

From pv magazine Australia.