The Victorian Government is currently in caretaker mode, ahead of a state election on the 24th November. While both sides of politics are busy coming up with vote winning policies, they should look to South Australia for a great one.
This week, the South Australian Government committed to subsidise up to 40,000 batteries to power homes in South Australia.
For example, the solar battery rebate in South Australia for an 8kWh sonnenBatterie will be $4,000 for standard households and $4,800 for Energy Concession Holders.
Available to everyone across the state, the initiative aims to make it more affordable for consumers to adopt this technology. Millions of homes across the country have added solar panels to their roof to decrease their power bills. Over the years, the feed-in tarrifs for sending power back to the grid have dropped significantly, sometimes from over 40c per kWh to less than 6 cents, making solar less viable, or at best the payback much longer.
By adding battery storage, households can store the power they collect from their solar panels and run electrical appliances off that battery energy after sundown.
If you haven’t yet made an investment in solar, then it’s likely a solar + battery combination is the way forward to make the economics add up. The issue with that is the larger up-front cost. Having the Government subsidise the battery investment will encourage more users to participate in the program and is one of the best ways to practically make both an immediate and long-term impact on household energy prices.
Subsidised batteries are expected to reduce payback periods significantly, dropping to 3-4 years in some cases, and reducing power bills to $0 for some homeowners.
Natural Solar (Australia’s largest solar and battery installer) say they have received more than 4000 enquiries within SA in just the first 24 hours of the announcement.
Natural Solar have released their rebate battery calculator (naturalsolar.com.au) to allow people to determine what their rebate will be, along with the size of battery their household will require.
These 40,000 batteries will join forces to create a state-wide Virtual Power Plant; the largest of its kind anywhere in the world.
Already, there has been huge adoption of battery power around the country, and Government subsidies will only grow the adoption from tech savvy households and homeowners.