New South Wales’ Empowering Homes Program (remember that?) still appears to be stuck in pilot mode.
Back in February 2019 in the lead-up to the State election, then-Premier Gladys Berejiklian committed to the Empowering Homes program. If the Liberal/National party coalition were returned to power, the initiative would offer no-interest loans for the purchase of solar batteries and solar + battery systems. A very ambitious program, it was to be available to “up to 300,000 households”.
In June 2019, the Berejiklian Government said the program could commence towards the end of that year.
That didn’t happen, but it did kick off in March 2020 – sort of. It was to run as pilot project for up to 12 months, and only in nine local government areas initially. The program was expanded to 24 LGAs in late 2020, and that is as far as it has gone.
Less Than Stellar Uptake
Now that two years have passed for what was to be a 12 month pilot program – what is uptake like?
According to a Daily Telegraph report, just 439 households had a system installed in the two years to February 23 and another 554 applied – but that doesn’t mean all those will result in installations. The Telegraph mentions a NSW Planning and Environment Department spokesperson said results of the pilot are being analysed and will be used to inform future stages of the Empowering Homes program.
While the pilot should have wound up in March 2021, some extra time would have been needed to monitor how the scheme and installed systems have performed. Perhaps we’ll see the Empowering Homes program fully unleashed soon.
But should you participate?
About The Solar Battery Loans
As things stand at the moment, if you live in one of these postcodes you may be eligible for an interest-free loan of up to:
- $14,000 towards a solar PV and battery system (repayable over a range of terms up to 8 years), or
- $9,000 towards retrofitting a battery to an existing solar power system (repayable over a range of terms up to 10 years).
Unfortunately, there’s no solar-only option.
Other eligibility criteria include a household income of no more than $180,000 per annum, owning the home – and living in it.
If you are eligible for Empowering Homes, a couple of things to bear in mind:
- Only approved suppliers are able to install systems and provide access to the interest-free loans. Around 40 installers are approved currently.
- It’s wise to first determine if a solar and/or battery installation is right for you financially speaking if that is your focus. Solar-only still generally offers much better bang for buck.
To help determine if a battery system makes financial sense for your household, give SolarQuotes’ solar and battery calculator a whirl. The NSW Government also offers a calculator, but when SQ’s Ronald put it through its paces back in 2020, he wasn’t impressed (maybe it has improved since then).
Further information on the NSW Empowering Homes program can be found here.
About Michael Bloch
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Residential battery uptake may be slow, but it seems some NSW grid-scale battery developments are progressing quickly, and are much bigger than South Australia’s first so-called ‘big battery’ at Hornsdale, and Victoria’s “Big Battery” near Geelong!
The NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE) approved AGL’s proposal for a battery energy storage system (BESS) with 500 MW x 4 hours discharge capacity located at Liddell, on 8 Mar 2022.
https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/projects/liddell-battery-and-bayswater-ancillary-works
Also progressing within the NSW DPIE planning pipeline are some other grid-scale BESSs, including for example:
1. Origin’s proposal with 700 MW / 2,800 MWh capacity at Eraring.
https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/projects/eraring-battery-energy-storage-system
2. Greenspot’s proposal for the “Wallerawang 9 Battery” with up to 500 MW / 1,000 MWh capacity at the site of the former Wallerawang Power Station, has progressed to “Response to Submissions” status.
https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/projects/wallerawang-battery-energy-storage-system
3. Neoen’s proposal for approximately 500 MW / 1,000 MWh capacity “Great Western Battery” energy storage system at 173 Brays Lane, Wallerawang NSW (not far from the site of the former Wallerawang Power Station), with the EIS currently on public exhibition.
https://pp.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/projects/great-western-battery-energy-storage-system
The reason to blame is not alot of advertising and the limited number of installers.
Also the large push for non battery installs and the solar installers not informing people of the fores and against its all well to sell something and show potential returns on if you are to receive a FiT of 15c however, if retailers decide to change what they pay it throws this out the window.
It’s a shame many installers even the ones on this site pass batteries off as a white elephant instead of actually working out what Is right for every individual consumer. Partly to blame is the lack of good calculators taking into account all factory and the salesman too lazy to do the maths
Josh,
What would your perfect battery calculator look like?
Finn
Josh, home battery economics in NSW sucks and that’s the primary reason for bugger all take up. Giving people a loan to lose money just isn’t all that appealing.