Revealed: Where Australians are rushing to claim $4000 home battery rebates
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s $2.3bn battery subsidy has attracted 60,000 households and new figures reveal exactly who is getting the money. SEE THE LIST.
Exclusive: Homeowners in outer suburbia and the regions have stormed a new taxpayer-funded scheme that slashes the price of a home battery by thousands of dollars.
Meanwhile the 30 per cent rebate has been hardly used in the wealthiest parts of Australia, even though it isn’t means-tested.
One in three households have rooftop solar, but barely one in 40 can store that energy so it can be used during peak demand after the sun goes down.
The Albanese government believes the $2.3 billion scheme will speed up progress towards a predominantly renewables power system, forecasting that there will be one million batteries installed by the end of the decade.
Earlier incentives, such as feed-in tariffs, that propelled Australia to world leader in solar generation per capita, were largely funded by adding their cost to power bills paid by all.
However, increasingly, taxpayers are covering the expense on rebates such as the ‘Cheaper Home Batteries Program’.
That shift reduces upward pressure on bills due to the ‘energy transition’.
This masthead’s analysis of official data from the Clean Energy Regulator reveals that nationally, the postcode with the highest number of installations in the first two months of the scheme includes Kellyville and Rouse Hill, more than 35 kilometres northwest of the Sydney CBD.
This area is partially in the federal seat of Greenway, represented by senior Labor minister Michelle Rowland; but a chunk of the postcode is represented by Liberal Alex Hawke.
The spot with the second-highest number of new batteries with 143 includes parts of Nowra on the NSW south coast, which is also Labor territory.
Third is Lismore in northern NSW with 129, which is held by the Nationals.
By contrast, since July 1 there has only been one installation under the scheme in ritzy suburbs such as Mosman, Woollahra and Neutral Bay by Sydney Harbour, and one in Melbourne’s South Yarra.
The rebate lowers the upfront cost of a 12 kilowatt-hour battery by about $4000.
When Labor announced the incentive in April ahead of the election, it said a battery and solar could slash a household power bill by 90 per cent.
The Coalition criticised the program, saying people who couldn’t afford a battery would be subsidising those who could.
But federal Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has argued that the scheme has brought batteries within financial reach of tens of thousands of households.
“Our cheaper home batteries program is a story of our suburbs and regions,” Mr Bowen told this masthead.
“While the Coalition double-down on climate denial, over 60,000 Australians have now jumped at the opportunity to bring down their bills for good.”
The top six locations for installations are in NSW.
The leading Victorian postcode for new batteries covers Tarneit and Truganina on the fringe of Melbourne, more than 20km west of the CBD. There have been 105 installs in the area, which traverses three federal seats all held by Labor.
The no. 1 spot in Queensland is the area surrounding Springfield, which is ALP territory more than 25km from downtown Brisbane; 102 batteries had been connected by August 31.
Meanwhile there has been just one in the postcode covering well-to-do Newstead.
In South Australia, Smithfield on Adelaide’s outskirts leads the way with 104 installs.
Simon Bramman of Kellyville had AHE Group install a 20-kilowatt-hour battery on the day the rebate kicked in. He also put a 12kW solar system on his roof.
Before, he was paying $500 per month for power. He now has no consumption costs and only spends about $30 a month to be connected to the grid.
“I was thinking about just doing solar, but the battery rebate put me across the line,” said Mr Bramman, who expects to recover his upfront costs in three years.
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Originally published as Revealed: Where Australians are rushing to claim $4000 home battery rebates
