Stoddart partners with Metricon and other builders to offer free solar and home batteries
Sunshine is free. Now a group of building companies in SA say the power from the sun should also come at no extra cost when you’re buying a new home.
SA News
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“Free” solar and home batteries are being offered to families buying a new-built home in a housing industry initiative announced on Wednesday.
The installation, worth about $20,000, is now being included as a standard fitting by a group of builders.
“We believe strongly that the time has come for every new Australian home to be 100 per cent powered by renewable energy,” said Adam Taylor, general manager of building construction company Stoddart Group.
The initiative was intended to change the dynamics for home buyers who were making multiple decisions about what to include in their purchase and often felt they couldn’t afford solar during the build and would think about it later.
“So we’ve seen very low take-up rates in the past compared to solar on existing homes,” he said.
Stoddart which supplies and fits steel frames, roofing, garage doors and other components has partnered with major South Australia builders to share the cost of the solar and battery installation.
“SA is at the centre of an energy revolution in this country,” Mr Taylor said.
Premier Steven Marshall said the initiative — which will qualify for the Government’s Home Battery Scheme subsidies of up to $6000 — would benefit homebuyers and the electricity grid.
For new-build homes, the State Government has lengthened the time from six months to 12 months from when a battery is conditionally approved for a subsidy to when proof must be submitted it has been installed.
Master Builders Association chief executive Ian Markos said it was “a win for homebuyers and builders alike ... providing some much-needed stimulus to the industry”.
Energy and Mining Minister Dan van Holst Pellekaan said the initiative would “turbo charge” take-up of batteries beyond the current 6000 homes.
He was “very confident” it would help achieve the target of the 40,000 homes being fitted with batteries under the $100 million scheme.
Opposition energy spokesman Tom Koutsantonis said the initiative was “an attempt to inflate lacklustre numbers” of take-up under the Home Battery Scheme and only favoured selected builders.
Under the new-build initiative, the homeowner must agree to being part of a virtual power plant — where external managers can dip into the battery when power prices spike — but will take full ownership of the battery after five years.
The general manager for SA of builder Metricon, Richard Bryant, said the renewable package was now being offered as standard feature of its homes.
“My sales team are really happy,” he said.
“There are no losers at the end of the day, from the customer’s point of view it doesn’t cost them any money and from our point of view there’s a very small cost we absorb.”
He dismissed the idea of buyers opting out for a $20,000 discount on the purchase price.
Athelstone couple Ken and Gina Carter were already in the process of having a $450,000 Metricon home constructed when they were given a call to say the renewables pack was being added.
“We were going to get solar anyway so this is fantastic,” Mr Carter said.
“We were one of the early ones to get solar before.”
Stoddart have engaged retailer Powershop and technology company Reposit as part of the scheme which will see a 6.5kW solar array and 11.6kWh SolaX battery installed.
Mr Taylor said the solar array would generate about $800/year worth of electricity (at grid rates) and the battery pay-off over five years would be the equivalent of saving $1500/year.
“So it’s worth about $2300 a year in value to the homeowner each year,” he said.
Powershop will run the virtual power plant and if the homeowner needs to buy any energy from the grid, that would be at a 30 per cent discount.
Powershop chief commercial officer Michael Benveniste said the company was modelling whether homeowners would be paid for energy exported to the grid at a flat rate or a rate dependent on wholesale spot prices.
“We do have virtual power plants with each system so we’re working out which will benefit customers most here,” he said.
As well as Metricon, the initiative includes Rivergum Homes, Sterling Homes, Hickinbotham, SA Housing Centre, Statesmen Homes, ABC Homes and Metro Homes.
Because the batteries and solar will be included at the build stage rather than retrofitted they will be better integrated.
Batteries and SolaX inverters will be housed in steel cages recessed into the brick walls behind a fibre-cement firewall.
The initiative comes as battery maker Sonnen said it had “eliminated a small number” of positions from the factory it established in the former Holden plant.
“Adoption of home batteries in Australia is still at its infancy and has not been in line with industry growth forecasts,” Sonnen said.
The move is a small reversal on previous jobs’ growth where Sonnen had increased its workforce at the factory from about 39 in late 2018 to 47 in October last year.
It now has 58 people on its total Australian workforce.