Australia’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program passes 500,000 installations
Australia’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program passed 500,000 installations on 14 August 2026, with accredited battery installers doubling to 8,846 since 2025.
Photo by Robert So on Pexels
More than 500,000 batteries have been installed under Australia’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said in a joint media release issued on 14 August 2026. The federal subsidy scheme, administered by the Clean Energy Regulator, began on 1 July 2025 and reached the half-million mark in roughly 13 months. The government also stated that the number of accredited battery installers in Australia has doubled to 8,846 since the program commenced.
The release did not include a cumulative storage capacity figure for the 500,000 milestone. Energy-Storage.News reported the milestone on 17 August and estimated that the installed fleet would equate to roughly 14 GWh based on average system sizes recorded at earlier milestones, while stating plainly that the government published no official capacity figure. That estimate should be read as the outlet’s own extrapolation rather than an official number.
How the Cheaper Home Batteries Program discount works
The program is delivered through the existing Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme. Households do not receive a cash payment. Instead, small-scale technology certificates created by an eligible battery are assigned to a registered agent, who passes the value back as an upfront discount on the purchase price. When the scheme launched, the government described the reduction as around 30 per cent, or roughly $4,000 off the cost of a typical home battery.
The Clean Energy Regulator’s rules for solar batteries set the eligibility boundaries. A battery must have a nominal capacity between 5 kWh and 100 kWh, be installed with new or existing solar of no more than 100 kW, appear on the Clean Energy Council approved battery list, comply with AS/NZS 5139:2019, be capable of connecting to a virtual power plant, and be fitted by an accredited installer holding a battery endorsement. Certificates can only be claimed on the first 50 kWh of usable capacity, and one battery is supported per premises.
Two features taper the support. The certificate factor per kWh declines each half-year, so the discount shrinks as battery prices fall, and larger systems earn a reduced share of that factor.
| Usable capacity band | Share of the certificate factor |
|---|---|
| 0 to 14 kWh | 100% |
| Above 14 to 28 kWh | 60% |
| Above 28 to 50 kWh | 15% |
| Above 50 kWh | Not eligible for certificates |
Source: Clean Energy Regulator, solar batteries guidance, page last updated 31 July 2026.
Growth across the first 13 months
Ministerial releases published at each milestone give a consistent official record of installation counts, and capacity figures for the first three.
| Milestone | Date announced | Installations | Official capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Program start | 1 July 2025 | 0 | 0 |
| 100,000 | 26 October 2025 | More than 100,000 | 2 GWh |
| 200,000 | 17 January 2026 | 200,000 | About 4.7 GWh |
| 250,000 | 1 March 2026 | More than 250,000 | 6.3 GWh |
| 350,000 | 30 April 2026 | More than 350,000 | Not stated |
| 500,000 | 14 August 2026 | More than 500,000 | Not stated |
Sources: media releases from the Minister for Climate Change and Energy at each milestone, and the joint prime ministerial release of 14 August 2026.
Where the batteries land has become a talking point. The 14 August release stated that more than three quarters of batteries installed under the program have gone into outer suburban and regional communities, and pointed to the New South Wales electorate of Mitchell, which ranked 108th nationally for battery uptake in 2024 and now ranks third. The announcement was made at a solar and battery installer in Castle Hill, the postcode with the highest number of program installations in the country. Australia’s rooftop solar base underpins the uptake: the government put solar on more than one in three Australian households.
Bowen has separately described uptake outside the capital cities, naming the electorates of Hume, Mitchell, Greenway and Macquarie in New South Wales, Wright in Queensland and Mayo in South Australia among the strongest adopters, according to Energy-Storage.News. RenewEconomy reported ahead of the announcement that four of the seven electorates with the highest uptake are Coalition-held, using data from the Smart Energy Council.
Budget pressure and grid effects
Demand has run well past the original costing. The program was budgeted at about AU$2.3 billion when announced, and was expanded in December 2025 to an estimated AU$7.2 billion over four years, roughly three times the initial projection, with the government then expecting around 2 million installations by 2030. The 14 August release cited the Australian Energy Market Operator’s most recent quarterly report as finding that home batteries are reshaping grid demand and reducing the evening peak, though it did not name or link the report.
Albanese stated that “Australian households have led the world on rooftop solar, and now they are leading the world on home batteries too.” Bowen stated that the program is “helping households cut bills, store cheap solar and take control of their energy use.”
Residential storage now sits alongside the utility-scale build-out that has driven most of Australia’s recent capacity growth, covered in earlier Winss reporting on Australia adding a record 9.1 GW of renewables in FY26. Readers new to the technology can compare the household model with how grid-scale battery storage works, and place the Australian numbers against the global picture in battery storage hitting a record 108 GW in 2025.
Background
Australia has the highest rate of rooftop solar penetration of any country, but until 2025 home battery attachment rates lagged well behind, largely on upfront cost. The Cheaper Home Batteries Program was announced during the 2025 federal election campaign and commenced on 1 July 2025 after the Albanese government’s re-election, using the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme as its delivery mechanism rather than creating a new administrative body. Milestones followed quickly: 100,000 installations by late October 2025, 200,000 by mid-January 2026, and 250,000 by the start of March 2026. In December 2025 the government expanded the budget after uptake outran forecasts, and revised its 2030 target upward to about 2 million systems. The 500,000 milestone announced on 14 August 2026 puts the scheme a quarter of the way to that target with more than three and a half years of the program still to run, while the declining certificate factor means each subsequent installation attracts a smaller discount than the last.
Sources: Prime Minister of Australia; Minister for Climate Change and Energy; Clean Energy Regulator; Minister for Climate Change and Energy; Energy-Storage.News; RenewEconomy
Featured image: photo by Robert So on Pexels (free Pexels license).
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I specialize in sustainability education, curriculum co-creation, and early-stage project strategy. At WINSS, I craft articles on sustainability, transformative AI, and related topics. When I’m not writing, you’ll find me chasing the perfect sushi roll, exploring cities around the globe, or unwinding with my dog Puffy — the world’s most loyal sidekick.
