The surge in home battery installations continues to defy all expectations, reaching more than 360,000 in the 10 months since the program was launched, and installation rates of more than 1,500 a day ahead of the rebate changes.
The new figures released by the federal government also comes as new data highlights that the greatest take-up of the federal battery rebate has been in regional and outer suburban areas, which have accounted for 77 per cent of installs.
And it also comes as the latest quarterly report from the Australian Energy Market Operator specifically credits home batteries – along with grid scale battery storage – for reducing demand in the evening peaks and lowering wholesale prices, which will eventually feed in to lower customer bills.
See: Solar and battery households help grid by importing more during day and exporting more in evening peaks
“More than 360,000 households have installed this capacity, cutting their power bills and helping drive down energy prices for everyone,” federal energy and climate minister Chris Bowen says.
“Australians are getting on with it. They know what’s good for the planet is good for their pocket.”
Source: Chris Bowen LinkedIn post.
In a LinkedIn post, Bowen noted that the amount of storage installed by households since the launch of the battery project now exceeded 10 gigawatt hours, or 70 times more than the original Tesla big battery at Hornsdale.
That is the result of a surge in large home batteries – particularly between 40 and 50 kWh before the rebates are changed to encourage smaller batteries and cap the cost of the scheme. In March alone, Australian home battery installations accounted for 10 per cent of total utility-scale storage additions around the world.
See: Australian home battery installations equal to almost 10 pct of global utility capacity brought online in March
According to SunWiz head Warwick Johnston, the amount of home battery installations in Australia is expected to grow to 30 gigawatt hours by the end of this year, as the rate of installations remains strong despite the rebate changes.
Johnston still expects 400,000 household batteries to be installed over calendar 2026, despite the rebate changes, and notes that PV-only installations are now very rare.
According to his data – presented in a webinar on home batteries hosted by Renew Economy on Thursday – just 7 per cent of installations are for rooftop solar only installations.
Around half of installations are now a combination of solar and home batteries, and the remainder is battery only, usually to support existing solar systems but sometimes as stand alone systems.
The federal government is using similar data, also noting that almost half of those installing home batteries are also ordering new or upgraded solar systems at the same time.
Bowen, and AEMO, make clear that batteries are helping households store the cheaper, cleaner energy they generate during the day, and use it at night. That means less reliance on peak prices, a more reliable grid and putting downward pressure on prices for everyone.
“This is what the clean energy transformation looks like when it is working for Australians. It is practical, it is household-focused, and it is being led by the suburbs and the regions,” Bowen said.
“Cheaper Home Batteries are helping families cut power bills and get more value from their solar. The postcode data makes it clear, this is not an inner-city story, it is a national story.
“The Coalition want to slow down cheaper renewables and keep people stuck with higher bills. Labor is getting on with the job, cleaner, cheaper, reliable energy for every community.”
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Giles Parkinson
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor-in-chief of Renew Economy, and founder and editor of its EV-focused sister site The Driven. He is the co-host of the weekly Energy Insiders Podcast. Giles has been a journalist for more than 40 years and is a former deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review. You can find him on LinkedIn and on Twitter.
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