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Topic:Batteries
Australia's love affair with solar is shifting towards batteries. (ABC News)
Australian households installed as many batteries in the final six months of 2025 as they did in the entire preceding five years, according to figures showing the boom in demand for storage devices.
Amid generous federal government subsidies that slash the up-front cost of batteries, a report from the Clean Energy Council found customers were taking up the offers at a breakneck pace.
More than 183,000 units were sold in the six months to December 31, the Clean Energy Council found, a "fourfold" increase on the same time in 2024.
It was also equivalent to the combined battery sales for 2020 and 2024.
But as battery demand surged, the council noted that Australians may have reached a tipping point in their uptake of rooftop solar, which had long been an engine of the country's energy transition.
Installations of rooftop photovoltaic, or PV, cells dropped 20 per cent in 2025 compared with the previous year to 254,664.
The council said about 4.3 million households now have solar, and demand may have reached a saturation point.
"This was the first time since 2020 that total annual rooftop PV installations did not surpass 300,000," the council noted in the report.
The extraordinary growth in demand for batteries has been boosted by taxpayer-funded incentives that reduce battery costs by about 30 per cent, or $4,000 for a typical system with 10 kilowatt-hours of storage.
Amid the clamour for subsidies, federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen acknowledged in December that the entire $2.3 billion budget would have been spent by mid-year.
Under its original design, the funds were intended to last until 2030.
Chris Bowen tipped more money into the battery subsidy scheme. (ABC News: Bridget McArthur)
The government has also faced criticism for its handling of the scheme, which experts said had been exploited by companies selling consumers super-sized systems of up to 50 kilowatt-hours.
In a shake-up announced before Christmas, Mr Bowen said the government would tip in an extra $5 billion to keep the scheme going.
At the same time, it tightened the eligibility criteria to guard against the over-selling of super-sized systems.
Jackie Trad, the Clean Energy Council's chief executive, said there were now more than 450,000 batteries installed on homes and businesses across the country.
"We know Australians have long had an appetite for energy independence to drive down bills and as a result have been adopting solar and battery technology at a record pace for the last several years," Ms Trad said.
Jackie Trad says battery demand has been "phenomenal".  (AAP: Dan Peled)
"Recent government home battery programs have strapped a rocket to this momentum, driving even stronger uptake over the past six months.
"We've seen phenomenal uptake of home batteries in Australia, with installations more than doubling in the space of one year.
"This increase in demand has also driven a surge in new batteries and inverter products available in the market, giving customers more choice than ever."
While installation rates for new rooftop solar panels cooled in 2025, Ms Trad said this reflected the technology's growing maturity in Australia.
She noted demand was still strong with consumers installing ever bigger systems, which were now 10.6 kilowatts on average when purchased.
By contrast, typical system sizes were as little as 1.6 kilowatts about 15 years ago.
Moreover, Ms Trad said rooftop solar was becoming one of the largest players in the country's electricity system.
At times, small-scale solar contributed more than half of the supply, while overall it met 14.2 per cent of demand last year.
That was up from 7.2 per cent just five years ago.
Ms Trad said, "Australia's rooftop solar uptake is a national triumph," noting that the technology now accounts for 28.3 gigawatts of combined capacity.
Rooftop solar, she noted, had a capacity that eclipsed "that of the country's entire fleet of coal-fired generators", which combined could produce 22.5 gigawatts of power.
"Our biggest power station now resides on the rooftops of more than 4.3 million households," she said.
"(It's) helping to drive downward pressure on power bills for consumers and businesses, with less reliance on expensive gas or unreliable coal to power our grid.
"It not only leads our national renewables rollout, but also leads the rest of the world on a per capita basis."
The growing popularity — and influence — of household batteries and solar panels has raised questions about whether the broader system will benefit from the shift.
Some pundits have questioned whether the battery subsidy scheme amounts to middle-class welfare, noting that renters, apartment owners, and other groups often lack the money or ability to access the technology.
Rohan Best, an associate professor at Macquarie University, said it made sense that the government wanted to support the rollout of battery storage.
Batteries, he said, were a natural complement to the predictable swings in solar output, and they would ensure less generation had to be wasted at times of abundance.
"I think it's a really great idea to be trying to support batteries at a whole range of scales, including at home," Professor Best said.
However, he said the government's scheme was arguably inequitable because most of the benefits would flow to people who could already afford the technology.
"There's certainly suggestive evidence that it's been quite expensive," he said.
"And it's very likely to have been unfair in the sense that a lot of the subsidies will be going to the households who already have more resources.
"Sort of higher income, higher assets, and these households will be getting larger subsidies even than the other ones who can afford the batteries at this stage."
Federal subsidies have cut the up-front cost of a battery by about 30 per cent. (ABC News: Rhiannon Shine)
According to Ms Trad, the adoption of batteries and rooftop solar would deliver "wider benefits" beyond those enjoyed by the asset owners.
She said this was because the technology could reduce peak demand on the grid by storing excess solar output during the day and releasing it in the evening after sunset.
Although she acknowledged that individual householders who owned the equipment could benefit most by reducing their bills and earning extra income by selling excess power from their batteries, she insisted others would benefit as well.
Key to this, she said, was the coordination of so much diffuse household clean tech through so-called virtual power plants.
Under a virtual power plant, companies ranging from large retailers to start-ups can orchestrate solar panels, batteries, and other clean technologies across thousands of homes.
To that end, Ms Trad cited research by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) showing that households in virtual power plants (VPPs) pay, on average, less for electricity.
"We know energy customers who sign up to a virtual power plant are currently paying the lowest power bills in Australia, according to the most recent analysis by the ACCC," she said.
"That's why encouraging and incentivising stronger participation in VPPs by Australian households and businesses is more important than ever."
More than 4 million Australian homes now have rooftop solar panels. (ABC News: Daniel Mercer)
Mr Bowen said the government's battery subsidy scheme was helping "more Australians take control of their power bills" by enabling them to use clean energy.
"Cheaper home batteries deliver real, lasting cost of living relief for Aussie households, while working to make the energy grid fairer, more affordable and more reliable during peak demand times," the minister said.
Topic:Federal Government
Topic:Cost of Living
Topic:Disasters, Accidents and Emergency Incidents
Topic:Scams and Fraud
Analysis by Laura Tingle
Topic:Law, Crime and Justice
Topic:Royalty
Topic:Disasters, Accidents and Emergency Incidents
Australia
Batteries
Coal
Energy Industry
Federal Government
Solar Energy
Topic:Federal Government
Topic:Cost of Living
Topic:Disasters, Accidents and Emergency Incidents
Topic:Scams and Fraud
Analysis by Laura Tingle
Topic:Law, Crime and Justice
Topic:Royalty
Topic:Courts
Topic:Federal Parliament
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