In late 2018, the Queensland government made grants available for battery installations in households and businesses around the state to store their solar power.
Australia, with its abundance of sunshine, has a high penetration of household solar nation-wide, (one in five homes), which makes it the ideal market for storage of that excess power. Many states have already announced large scale battery schemes and now the Sunshine State has made their own commitment.
In a recent media release, Energy Minister Dr Anthony Lynham confirmed the grants and loans scheme that will assist nearly 1,500 Queensland households and small businesses cut their power bills by storing solar power and using it after sunset.
“Almost half a million households in Queensland are generating power from rooftop solar,” Dr Lynham said. “This places us in a great position for the next wave of our renewable journey: storing this solar power through home battery systems”.
The scheme offers Queenslanders:
- Grants of $3,000 and interest-free loans of up to $10,000 for up to 1,000 combined solar and battery systems.
- Grants of $3,000 and interest-free loans of up to $6,000 for 500 batteries.
- This is in addition to the scheme that started in June 2018, offering interest-free loans of up to $4,500 for solar systems
The year ahead looks very promising for batteries and battery storage in Australia. According to a report released last month by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), Australia will become one of the world’s most active markets for residential storage with BNEF expecting a boom in household battery installation in 2019. Much of this activity will be driven by state government subsidies, as well as low-interest loans and demand response schemes.
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