https://e360.yale.edu/digest/australia-home-batteries
"A little more than one year ago, Australia rolled out a program to heavily
subsidize home batteries, part of a larger effort to make use of the huge
volumes of solar energy that were going to waste. On Friday, officials
announced that more than 500,000 batteries had been installed under the plan,
helping to slash wholesale power prices roughly in half.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen said that Australia now has more home batteries
than the United States, which has a population 12 times larger. “This is a
story of global significance that Australian households have achieved,” Bowen
said in a press conference.
Australia is the world leader in rooftop solar, with panels installed on more
than one in three households, the highest rate of adoption globally. But
abundant solar power has created a new dilemma as the grid faces a surge of
electricity from connected rooftop arrays. Power prices plunge. Centralized
power plants are forced offline, threatening grid stability. And much of that
solar power goes to waste.
The government has moved to make use of this surplus solar energy, including by
offering free power in the early afternoon to homeowners in Queensland, New
South Wales, and South Australia, regardless of whether they have solar panels
on their roof or not. The goal is to spur more consumers to run appliances or
charge electric vehicles during this window.
With its home battery subsidy program, launched in July 2025, the government is
aiming to help households use more solar energy by providing a 30 percent
discount on residential battery systems connected to solar arrays.
The subsidy program has spurred a boom in installations. Australia is on track
to more than double its home battery capacity this year,
Bloomberg reports.
The program has also been a boon to the grid. By relying on batteries in the
early evening, when demand peaks, homeowners are reducing the need for
utilities to fire up additional power plants during those hours, which is
helping to lower costs for other ratepayers, officials say."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
