Victorian property developer, Porter Davis, has become the latest in Australia to offer rooftop solar and battery storage as a standard feature for new home builders, as part of a limited offer for “knockdown rebuild” homes.
In a deal announced last week with solar retailer Bradford Energy, Porter Davis said it would include a 5.6kW rooftop solar system coupled with a 13.5kWh Tesla Powerwall 2 to 50 such rebuilds in Victoria, as part of a limited promotion.
The PV and battery deal, packaged as the Bradford Solar ChargePack, is expected to deliver an average of $26,000 in energy cost savings over a ten-year period, and give home owners up to 90 per cent energy self-sufficiency on an average day.
The solar and storage systems also have the ability to provide back-up during grid outages, such as those triggered by heatwave conditions in Victoria over the weekend, leaving tens of thousands of homes without power.
The Victorian deal is not the first to pair Bradford Energy (aka CSR Bradford) with a major Australian housing developer – or solar and battery storage with new-build homes: a pairing CSR’s managing director, Anthony Tannous, has predicted will soon be the norm.
In a deal with Melbourne-based Metricon homes in April last year, Queensland customers who upgraded to the builder’s “luxury living” offer could get the same Solar ChargePack.
As we noted at that time, the upgrade – which then cost $1,999 for a single story home and $4,999 for a double story home – was expected to save the Metricon households $2,100 a year on energy costs.
It has also offered similar packages in Victoria through Arden Homes, and in New South Wales with Mojo Homes.
For Porter Davis, the hope us that the offer of solar and storage will add to the appeal of so-called “knockdown-rebuild” homes, by future-proofing them against rising power prices.
“The idea of a knockdown rebuild home is that it allows homeowners to stay in both the street and
the suburb they love, while enjoying a brand-new home more suited to their lifestyle,” company spokesman Paul Wolff said.
“But with power prices reaching unprecedented levels, many homeowners are being forced to change their lifestyle to find cost savings, and in some cases even adapting to power outages.
“Australians are increasingly looking for energy options that give them flexibility and independence
from the grid, and this partnership with Bradford Energy is about allowing customers to adapt to
these changing demands of homeownership.
“In fact, we think that energy self-sufficiency technologies are set to become standard inclusions in the homes of the future.”
Bradford Energy – a NSW-based company which started in insulation more than 80 years ago and has since branched into energy efficiency and solar and storage – has a similar belief.
“I have a vision that every house built in a few years time will have a battery installed, it just makes so much sense,” Tannous told One Step Off The Grid in an interview in March 2017.
“We’ve been working with most of the major builders across Australia and a lot of them are starting to include storage as standard… while others offer it as an upgrade,” he said.
“And that will just gain more momentum.”
Sophie is editor of One Step Off The Grid and deputy editor of its sister site, Renew Economy. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.
