That Smart Energy 2026 Conference & Expo: Australia’s leading show that isn’t All Energy.

I’m filling in for our editor, Max, who has taken himself on holiday like someone who doesn’t understand the gravity of the Smart Energy Conference. Someone had to go. So I went to Sydney. Here’s what happened. [Read more…]

We’ve been running this website for 16 years. In that time, we’ve published tens of thousands of reviews and written plenty of posts about installers and manufacturers. Shock horror, some have been critical. [Read more…]

A rush to secure home battery systems ahead of the 1 May cutoff has left many customers dealing with delays that have pushed their installs past the deadline, raising questions about pricing and eligibility. If your system wasn’t fully commissioned by 30 April, you may now be working through what that means for your agreed price, your installation timeline, and any changes being proposed by your installer. [Read more…]

Apparently a recent raft of audits showed 98% of battery installations were defective. Does that mean the entire solar installation industry is incompetent? No, but the people writing the rules…?

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A Queensland homeowner got a solar-battery system under a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) through ShineHub, expecting it could be expanded later. Just a couple of years into a 10 year contract, the homeowner says he was told to throw away his battery and inverter and start again if he wanted more capacity — even though the system still worked. [Read more…]

Australia’s federal battery rebate is changing from May 1, 2026 — and if you’re considering a home battery, you’ll want to understand what’s changed and what it means for you.

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Sometimes I write blog posts that are fact checks. But today’s is more a statement of fact.  And that fact is:

If your electricity consumption is anywhere close to normal, it’s a bad idea to blow your only chance to use the battery rebate on a tiny 5 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery, like the one promoted by Solar Battery Group’s letter mailout campaign.

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If you’ve got a high-voltage stackable battery system and the DC cables between the battery and inverter don’t have mechanical protection, you’re not compliant with Australian standards and your systems could be classed as unsafe – and shut down.

This column explains why, and what the standard requires.

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Door knockers are falsely claiming that the government is giving away free solar and battery systems because of “the oil crisis”, as a spate of online ads assert the federal rebate will end in May.  [Read more…]

The government’s decision to taper the battery rebate every six months feels like it’s been borrowed straight from a hard-sell playbook. There’s nothing like a rolling “price goes up soon!” to push people toward a decision before they’ve properly thought it through.

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