{"id":29925,"date":"2019-05-06T14:33:34","date_gmt":"2019-05-06T04:03:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=29925"},"modified":"2026-04-24T11:56:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T02:26:24","slug":"smart-energy-council-batteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/smart-energy-council-batteries\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart Energy Council Says Dumb Things About Batteries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-30071 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/1-plus-one.jpg\" alt=\"Smart Energy Council - solar batteries\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/1-plus-one.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/1-plus-one-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/1-plus-one-768x402.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/1-plus-one-1024x536.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On Thursday the 1st of May the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smartenergy.org.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Smart Energy Council<\/a> put out a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.home.com.au\/newsfeed\/article\/new-analysis-solar-batteries-cut-families-power-bills-by-60-80\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">press release<\/a><sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/smart-energy-council-batteries\/#en-29925-1' id='enref-29925-1' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(29925)'>1<\/a><\/sup>that strongly implied home batteries can pay for themselves.\u00a0 Unfortunately, at this time, they don&#8217;t with the possible exception of South Australia with their hefty subsidy of up to $6,000.\u00a0 Anyone who says they do without a large subsidy is either being ignorant, incompetent, or deceptive.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know why the Smart Energy Council is so clearly failing to live up to its name.\u00a0 The harm that can come from the misleading information they&#8217;re spreading includes:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Inflicting real financial hardship on Australian families when the battery system they buy ends up costing them money instead of providing savings, and&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>Enabling con artists who will now find it easier to convince people to buy solar battery systems that only make the seller money and only lose the buyer money.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>It makes me wonder if they are evil:<\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"Dr Evil&#039;s Laughing Scene [HD]\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Xzx3-hKl__8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Or stupid:<\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"HOMER SIMPSON: &quot;Now to do the exact same thing again!&quot;\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VJfh6WzQhaw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Or both:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_30011\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30011\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30011\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hamstertrump.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"560\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hamstertrump.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/hamstertrump-300x240.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-30011\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image: The Independent<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>A Misleading Headline<\/h2>\n<p>The problem with the Smart Energy Council&#8217;s press release begins with its headline:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-30018 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/headline.gif\" alt=\"Smart Energy Council - solar batteries headline\" width=\"752\" height=\"152\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If an average person who&#8217;s not particularly knowledgeable about solar batteries read that, you&#8217;d think it would be quite reasonable for them to conclude:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-30020 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/dudesave.gif\" alt=\"Batteries save money?\" width=\"500\" height=\"425\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You certainly wouldn&#8217;t expect them to conclude the following:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-30037 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/dudelose2.gif\" alt=\"Solar battery - losing money\" width=\"500\" height=\"425\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This is unfortunate because it is the second speech bubble that is correct.<\/p>\n<h2>Blended Payback Hides Cost Of Solar Batteries<\/h2>\n<p>Assuming you trust me when I say home batteries won&#8217;t pay for themselves without a large subsidy like in South Australia, you may be wondering why the Smart Energy Council says they do.\u00a0 But this is where the deceptive trick lies.\u00a0 They don&#8217;t actually say buying a home battery will save you money.\u00a0 They say buying solar and a battery will save you money.\u00a0 This is sort of true in the sense that you&#8217;d be $80 ahead if I gave you five $20 notes and you flushed one down the toilet.\u00a0 Sure, technically you&#8217;re ahead, but you&#8217;re still an idiot for flushing away $20.<\/p>\n<p>Rooftop <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/solar101.html\">solar power<\/a> can pay for itself fast but batteries can&#8217;t, so the Smart Energy Council has combined the payback of solar and batteries together to hide the fact that batteries are normally a money-losing proposition.\u00a0 Squishing them together like this is called blended payback and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/blended-payback\/\">I wrote about it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-30036 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Blended-payback.jpg\" alt=\"Blended payback - solar panels and energy storage\" width=\"650\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Blended-payback.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Blended-payback-300x222.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Smart Energy Council don&#8217;t explain how they arrived at their blended payback figures, but I&#8217;m willing to bet they used very optimistic figures for the battery side of things.\u00a0 They do state they spoke to battery manufacturers, but that&#8217;s like asking a shark if you&#8217;d look better with one arm and one leg less.\u00a0 You&#8217;re not likely to get an unbiased answer.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re interested in how difficult it can be for a battery system to pay for itself in South Australia even with the highest battery subsidy and highest grid electricity prices, you can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sa-battery-subsidy-savings\/\">read about it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And if you want to see how much batteries cost before installation, then every solar battery system we know is available in Australia and have information on is in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/battery-storage\/comparison-table\/#compare\">solar battery comparison table<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to implying that batteries can pay for themselves the Smart Energy Council claims they reduce greenhouse gas emissions.\u00a0 While solar batteries can potentially reduce emissions<sup class='endnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/smart-energy-council-batteries\/#en-29925-2' id='enref-29925-2' onclick='return hhEndnotes_show(29925)'>2<\/a><\/sup>, at the moment they generally do not.\u00a0 They increase emissions and you can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/does-battery-storage-help-or-hurt-the-environment\/\">read about this problem here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Australians Deserve Better<\/h2>\n<p>My tolerance for bullshit has been completely depleted by election shenanigans and the fact that for some reason the My Little Ponies have suddenly become hideous, mutated, humanoid freaks:<\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-wrapper\"><iframe title=\"Equestria Girls - SING-ALONG - &#039;Cafeteria Song&#039;\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zgsBcT4PAuI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>So I don&#8217;t appreciate the Smart Energy Council putting out a press release that could result in ordinary Australians suffering real financial harm.\u00a0 We deserve better than this from industry bodies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Thursday the 1st of May the Smart Energy Council put out a press release1that strongly implied home batteries can pay for themselves.\u00a0 Unfortunately, at this time, they don&#8217;t with the possible exception of South Australia with their hefty subsidy of up to $6,000.\u00a0 Anyone who says they do without a large subsidy is either [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-battery-storage","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.5 (Yoast SEO v28.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Smart Energy Council Says Dumb Things About Solar Batteries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Smart Energy Council put out a press release that strongly implied home batteries can pay for themselves.\u00a0 Unfortunately, at this time, they don&#039;t.\" \/>\n<meta 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