As part of its 2025 federal election campaign, the Labor party announced the Cheaper Home Batteries program, a policy focused on getting more solar batteries into homes.
The program is a $2.3 billion fund that would cover 30% of the purchase and installation of home batteries.
This article explains how the program would work, how much you could actually save, and what to do next if you’re keen to install solar.
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How would the solar battery program work?
The program would start on July 1, 2025 and would form part of an already existing scheme that supports solar panel and battery installation, called the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES). The SRES provides subsidies and incentives to households installing renewable energy systems.
The Cheaper Home Batteries Program is slightly different, in that it would also provide subsidies to community facilities and small businesses.
Solar batteries installed from now until July 1 would also be eligible for the rebate, but they cannot be switched on until after July 1.
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How much could you save on your solar battery?
The rebate will work by applying a rebate of $372 per one kilowatt-hour (kWh) of usable capacity (before admin fees and charges).
So for example, a home battery with 10kWh of capacity would have a total rebate of $3,720 (excluding admin fees and charges).
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| Potential savings on home solar batteries | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Battery system | Battery size | Average cost (incl. installation) | Estimated rebate |
| Enphase | 5 kWh | $10,300 | $1,860 |
| Sigenergy | 8 kWh | $8,800 | $2,976 |
| SolarEdge | 9.7 kWh | $13,400 | $3,608 |
| Sungrow | 12.8 kWh | $11,200 | $4,762 |
| Tesla Powerwall 2 | 13.5 kWh | $15,500 | $5,022 |
Read more: The election policies that could impact your energy bill
Which solar batteries will be eligible?
All systems and their installers will need to be approved by the Clean Energy Council. The minimum amount the program will cover is 5kWh, while the maximum will be 50kWh (although you would be able to install systems up to 100kWh).
The solar batteries must also be capable of connecting to a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) – although participation in a VPP is not required.
What should you do if you’re interested in getting a solar battery?
While the scheme is reliant on Labor winning the election, and would still only take effect on July 1, it’s still worth getting quotes for your solar system installation now.
According to the experts at SolarQuotes, there’s already a lot of demand for a federal government battery rebate. This means it could get even busier after July if Labor wins the election.
This runs the risk of lower quality installers hoping to get in on the demand – so it will definitely pay to have a clear understanding of solar and battery options that best suit your needs and budget.
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