The Victoria government has extended its solar battery rebate into another 80 postcodes in an attempt to revive interest in the scheme that has to date failed to attract much interest from households.
While offers for solar rebates have flown off the shelf, sometimes in a matter of minutes, the response to the battery rebate has been slow.
In response, Solar Victoria announced on Friday that the rebate would now be available in 104 postcodes rather than the original 24. These include 59 regional and 45 Melbourne postcodes.
Solar Victoria CEO Stan Krpan said new areas open to the solar battery program include the western and northern suburbs of Melbourne, the outer-east and the south-eastern growth corridor.
Regional areas to become eligible include postcodes near Ballarat and Bendigo, the Bellarine Peninsula, around Paynesville in East Gippsland, much of West and South Gippsland and Wodonga in the north-east.
Solar Victoria is offering 400 battery rebates of up to $4,838 in its new offering, with a further 400 available in March 2020. The government aims to deliver 10,000 household solar batteries under the scheme.
Householders seeking to apply for a rebate must obtain approval for a battery from their distribution network service provider before installation, have an existing solar PV system larger than 5kW, and meet other eligibility criteria.
“Solar batteries help households get the most out of their solar systems, reducing their reliance on the grid and making their energy bills even smaller,” energy minister Lily d’Ambrosio said in a statement.
The solar rebate, which is now being held twice monthly with higher allocations in response to pressure from the solar industry, quickly sold more than 80 per cent of the 4,524 rebates – each of $2,225 – offered in the release on Friday.
Victoria aims to supply the rebates to 650,000 homes over the next decade, adding some 2.6GW of rooftop solar to the state’s grid. So far, more than 45,000 rebates have been handed out.
However, only two battery rebates from the 456 on offer had been taken up by the time of publication of this story, which might be explained by the fact that households have more work to do to ensure they are eligible. But the households have time: The solar battery rebate is open till February.
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of One Step Off The Grid, and also edits and founded Renew Economy and The Driven. He has been a journalist for 35 years and is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review.
This post was published on November 1, 2019 1:26 pm
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View Comments
Is that because you can only get the solar rebate OR the battery rebate? I would have got both but i'm only allowed to have one.
Hi there,
Could you confirm that if you have been given a solar PV rebate you cannot claim the battery rebate?
Thanks!
Eligibility Criteria: Victorians eligible to receive a battery rebate if they meet all of the following criteria:
The property address has not previously taken part in the Solar Homes Program
Pretty useless for 43,000 people that have purchased solar panels through the VicSolar Solar Homes Program as they are not eligible for the battery rebates.. What a hopeless state of affairs that rules out the largest amount of solar installs in the last few years and simply lets the battery needs of those with new solar systems die in the process, hopeless planning on behalf of the State Govt and their system.
A home battery still makes no sense when looking at things from an economic point of view. They are also still very expensive even with the rebate. Therefore you really need a high amount of disposable income to be able to justify spending money on a battery. If the government is serious about getting more batteries installed they need to remove this eligibility requirement "the combined household taxable income of all owners is less than $180,000 a year (based on your Australian Tax Office Notice of Assessment)". That condition makes perfect sense for the solar rebate but not for batteries.
''However, only two battery rebates from the 456 on offer had been taken up by the time of publication of this story''
If they (SolarVic) were really serious about getting that duck curve flattened out they would offer the battery rebate to those people (like me) that have already received the solar rebate. It is really no surprise that only 2 people have taken up the offer because most people have probably already got the solar rebate, which has a much more beneficial effect on users power bills IMO.