{"id":35810,"date":"2019-12-19T05:21:16","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T18:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=35810"},"modified":"2024-10-04T06:58:54","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T21:28:54","slug":"nsw-empowering-homes-mb1336","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/nsw-empowering-homes-mb1336\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW Empowering Homes Solar Battery Program Update"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-35811\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/nsw-empowering-homes.jpg\" alt=\"Empowering Homes - New South Wales\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/nsw-empowering-homes.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/nsw-empowering-homes-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/nsw-empowering-homes-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/nsw-empowering-homes-768x403.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Many New South Wales households eager to take advantage of the State Government&#8217;s Empowering Homes program are going to need to wait quite a while longer.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The Empowering Homes initiative is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/nsw-solar-battery-loans-mb0933\/\">a commitment<\/a> made by the Berejiklian Government in the lead-up to the NSW State election earlier this year. It will offer interest-free loans of up to $14,000 for a solar + battery system or up to $9,000 for adding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/battery-storage\/comparison-table\/\">home battery storage<\/a> to an existing solar power system to eligible owner-occupiers with an annual household income of $180,000 or less.<\/p>\n<p>In an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/nsw-solar-battery-loans-mb1105\/\">update in June<\/a> and up until a couple of days ago, the Empowering Homes website noted it was expecting the first battery or solar-battery systems would be installed during this summer &#8211; but the design of the program has changed.<\/p>\n<p>Empowering Homes is to now kick off as a pilot in the first quarter of next year and only be available to eligible residents in the following Hunter region local government areas:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cessnock<\/li>\n<li>Dungog<\/li>\n<li>Lake Macquarie<\/li>\n<li>Maitland<\/li>\n<li>Mid-Coast<\/li>\n<li>Muswellbrook<\/li>\n<li>Port Stephens<\/li>\n<li>Singleton<\/li>\n<li>Upper Hunter<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Newcastle misses out and it&#8217;s not clear yet if all postcodes in the LGAs mentioned above will be eligible.<\/p>\n<h2>Why The Change?<\/h2>\n<p>Energy NSW states the decision to switch to a pilot was made after extensive consultation with the community and industry. It&#8217;s a bit of a mystery what form the community consultation took.<\/p>\n<p>The State Government believes the limited pilot is the best way to proceed.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;This pilot will test the program\u2019s design, including risk mitigation strategies, and ensure we deliver an effective program that benefits participants and the people of NSW.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The pilot will run for 12 months &#8211; so those outside the yet-to-be-announced eligible postcodes may not be able to participate until well into 2021. Looking on the bright side, perhaps by 2021 batteries would have come down enough in price to make storage a worthwhile investment.<\/p>\n<p>A much better approach may have been to run Empowering Homes as a solar-only program given its stated aim of unlocking clean energy investment, the popularity of PV and the excellent payback of solar power. For example, the simple payback for a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/systems\/6kw\/\">6.5kW solar<\/a> system <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-power-payback-2019\/\">installed in Sydney was around 4.6 years<\/a> as at June this year. Adding storage extends payback time considerably.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Berejiklian Government is also keen to start building significant distributed energy storage in the state, with Empowering Homes forecast to add up to 3,000 megawatt hours of storage capacity when complete ten years down the track.<\/p>\n<h2>Waiting Locks In Higher Electricity Bills For Longer<\/h2>\n<p>For New South Wales households keen to install PV + storage but who have held off due to the lure of an interest-free loan, it&#8217;s worthwhile taking another look at solar power and forgetting about batteries for the time being. Solar-only provides the best bang for buck and quite a few details of the Empowering Homes program remain unknown. When the interest-free loans for batteries are available, the economics of storage can then be reassessed and any devil in the program&#8217;s detail examined.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/panels\/cost\/\">cost of solar<\/a> has continued to drop and regardless of what some advertising in the last couple of months has indicated, Australia&#8217;s major solar subsidy (aka the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/panels\/rebate\/\">solar panel rebate<\/a>) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-rebate-not-ending\/\">isn&#8217;t ending<\/a>, making it a very good time to install a PV system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many New South Wales households eager to take advantage of the State Government&#8217;s Empowering Homes program are going to need to wait quite a while longer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":35811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[678],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solar-battery-news","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NSW Empowering Homes Solar Battery Program Update<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many New South Wales households eager to take advantage of the State Government&#039;s Empowering Homes program are going to need to wait quite a while longer.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/nsw-empowering-homes-mb1336\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NSW Empowering Homes Solar Battery Program Update\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many New South Wales households eager to take advantage of the State Government&#039;s Empowering Homes program are going to need to wait quite a while longer.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/nsw-empowering-homes-mb1336\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SolarQuotes Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SolarQuotes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-12-18T18:51:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-10-03T21:28:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/nsw-empowering-homes.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Bloch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@solar_quotes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@solar_quotes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/nsw-empowering-homes-mb1336\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/nsw-empowering-homes-mb1336\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Bloch\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66afd571aa00c2e442f0192ebac2f6f1\"},\"headline\":\"NSW Empowering Homes Solar Battery Program Update\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-18T18:51:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-03T21:28:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/nsw-empowering-homes-mb1336\/\"},\"wordCount\":558,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/nsw-empowering-homes-mb1336\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/nsw-empowering-homes.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"General Solar &amp; 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First, a bit of history: Empowering Homes is the result of a commitment made by the Berejiklian Government leading up to the NSW State election in March last\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"NSW Empowering Homes","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/nsw-empowering-homes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/nsw-empowering-homes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/nsw-empowering-homes.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/nsw-empowering-homes.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/nsw-empowering-homes.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":60088,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/nsw-battery-loans-2400\/","url_meta":{"origin":35810,"position":2},"title":"NSW Solar Battery Loans Go Begging","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"March 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"NSW Empowering Homes solar battery loans","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/nsw-empowering-homes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/nsw-empowering-homes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/nsw-empowering-homes.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/nsw-empowering-homes.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/nsw-empowering-homes.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":27825,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/nsw-solar-battery-loans-mb0933\/","url_meta":{"origin":35810,"position":3},"title":"NSW Government Strikes Back With Battery\/ Solar + Storage Support","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"February 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"New South Wales' Berejiklian Government is hoping to win votes with its promise of interest-free loans for solar batteries and solar power + battery systems. After NSW Labor's solar rebate pledge was announced on the weekend, the pressure was on the Berejiklian Government to pull something out of its hat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"NSW solar and storage loans","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/nsw-liberal-batteries.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/nsw-liberal-batteries.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/nsw-liberal-batteries.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/nsw-liberal-batteries.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/nsw-liberal-batteries.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":33842,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-storage-nsw-regulations-mb1230\/","url_meta":{"origin":35810,"position":4},"title":"Cutting Red Tape For Solar And Energy Storage In New South Wales","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"September 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The New South Wales Government wants to make it easier to install battery storage and commercial-scale solar energy systems - and is inviting feedback on proposed planning policy changes. Under the NSW planning system, renewable electricity infrastructure development is governed primarily by the State Environmental Planning Policy (Infrastructure) 2007 (Infrastructure\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Solar and storage - New South Wales","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/nsw-solar-storage.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/nsw-solar-storage.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/nsw-solar-storage.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/nsw-solar-storage.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/nsw-solar-storage.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":62586,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-energy-bill-buster-mb2507\/","url_meta":{"origin":35810,"position":5},"title":"More Free Solar Systems Under NSW&#8217;s Energy Bill Buster","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"June 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"A pilot program offering low income households a \"free\" solar power system is being expanded across New South Wales. Back in 2018, the then-Berejiklian Government\u2019s Solar for Low Income Households Trial was announced. The initiative involved eligible households in selected regions being able to swap their Low Income Household Rebate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"NSW Energy Bill Buster program","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/energy-bill-buster.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/energy-bill-buster.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/energy-bill-buster.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/energy-bill-buster.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/energy-bill-buster.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35810"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87402,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35810\/revisions\/87402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}