Solar batteries for homes & businesses thanks to federal government funding
Yes, you really can get a discount of up to 50% on solar battery systems!
Yes, you really can get a discount of up to 50% on solar battery systems!
Please email us if you cannot find an answer to your question.
Federal funding reduced by about 10% as of 1st January 2026 as planned; however, the latest announcement means that funding will reduce much further on the 1st May 2026 for larger systems (> 14 kWh). So if you want a large battery system to be substantially funded, it needs to be installed by the end of April of this year. Like the period leading up to Christmas 2025, electrical installers are likely to be fully booked by early March ... so get your quotes done and installations booked by February!
This is a federal government program to reduce the cost of battery systems for homes, businesses and community groups.
Official government websites here:
https://www.dcceew.gov.au/energy/programs/cheaper-home-batteries
Yes, Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs) have been successfully used for many years to reduce the price of a solar system for homes and businesses. Now, they are used to do the same for battery systems.
Yes, a good hybrid inverter will power your lights and wall sockets if you lose mains power; larger inverters can even power your whole house.
At the end of 2025, the value of the STCs will reduce; this happens every year until the 2030. So, to get the maximum discount, your system needs to be installed well before the end of this year to ensure enough time to process the STCs before Christmas. Installers are booked months in advance because of the explosion in demand, so the clock is ticking...
This government funding from the "Cheaper Home Batteries" program has made market go crazy! It's true that most suppliers are out of stock of batteries. However, our partners have stock arriving at the end of August - ready for installations in September...
Yes. You can add solar panels as part of a new system, or you can add batteries to an existing solar system.
Yes. You can typically add more solar panels to a hybrid inverter that is connected to a battery; you can also add more solar separately.
Often you can connect your existing solar panels to a new hybrid inverter that also connects to a battery. Alternatively, you can leave your existing solar system - just add another inverter for the battery.
Yes. While modern batteries are much safer, there is still a risk to be managed. Different types of lithium batteries have different risks - we recommend lithium iron phosphate (LFP) as the the safest option because it is inherently more stable, and has is much less severe if it does go into thermal runaway.
The best installation location is often the garage. Outside south-facing walls are suitable if your battery is waterproof. Avoid sunny locations - heat will reduce the lifespan of your battery.
Yes, if the battery is IP65. Consider the shape - a tall battery tower requires a structural foundation to withstand wind loading in a cyclone (or support from a wall etc).
Bigger is always better. Loss of mains grid power often coincides with bad weather when there is minimal solar available, so battery capacity determines how long you have power for. And excess capacity can be used for arbitrage when the grid is connected! And the government (mostly) pays for that extra capacity - the inverter cost is the same.
This is an exciting opportunity to earn money by charging your battery during the day (from your own solar, or other solar from the grid) when the electricity price is low, free or even negative - and then selling that power back into the grid at peak evening prices. This can offset your bill, sometimes completely, and even provide a credit!
If you already have solar, typical system pricing including installation pricing starts from around $8,000.
A good quality battery should last 10 years, and probably longer with reduced capacity. Our partners provide a 10-year warranty on their products; we recommend you always aim for this.
This depends on:
We are working on an AI-based modelling tool to automatically assist with this - check back soon...!
Yes! Investment companies put massive batteries on the grid for exactly this reason, and you can do the same on a smaller scale. If you arbitrage with a . Time of Use (TOU) tariff or direct National Electricity Market (NEM) pricing, and only use a small amount - you can get a negative "bill' every month!
TOU stands for Time Of Use - this means that the price of electricity changes depending on the time of day. It is usually very cheap – often negative – during the middle of the day (from excess solar power) and very expensive in the evening peak (when people get home and cook dinner).
It sounds strange, but the economics of supply and demand can do funny things. When all the solar systems on the network make heaps of power during the middle of the day, and traditional power stations don't want to turn off because it takes too long to startup again, there is far more supply than demand for electricity. This is a problem that can cause over-voltage and over-frequency trips; so the NEM actually pays users to draw more power and avoid serious problems.
NEM stands for National Electricity Market - its the electrical power grid that spans from Queensland to Tasmania. It has the very difficult job of always matching supply with demand. The NEM uses the principles of economics and adjusts pricing every 5 minutes to achieve this.
A Virtual Power Plant (VPP) automates when your battery discharges into the grid, typically via a website where you specify the desired times and parameters. A VPP also does this for many batteries across the network, and aggregates them together virtually to operate like one single power plant. This enables you to set price thresholds for when your battery charges from the grid, and sells back to the grid - so you don't have to continually watch the price and manually control the inverter. Dusk Energy provides VPP software so you can control how and when your battery operates.
To be eligible for the Cheaper Home Batteries Program, battery systems (if they are connected to the grid) must be capable of connecting to a VPP, although they do not actually need to use the VPP at this stage.
Load Management automates equipment such as your hot water cylinder, pool pump, EV charger, etc to avoid power consumption during times of expensive electricity prices (or blackouts), and maximise self-consumption of solar power. We always recommend that manual override is available so you maintain complete control.
Dusk Energy provides Load Management products, which work well in partnership with VPP software.
We partner with local suppliers and installers in Brisbane and Gold Coast:
- Please send us a message below, or
EV Watts supplies and installs home battery systems around Brisbane and Gold Coast.
Dusk Energy provides VPP and Load Management software.
ReGen EV provides residential and commercial EV chargers.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.