Federal Labor has today announced a Household Battery Program coupled with a strong focus on quality, safety and training to support a target of one million households with batteries by 2025. This is a great announcement for the solar and battery industry.
If Labor are elected at the upcoming federal election, the program would start from 1 January 2020, by providing a rebate for 100,000 battery systems, at a rate of $500 per kilowatt hour of battery capacity, capped at $2000 per household. Eligibility would include a gross household income of less than $180,000 per year.
Labor will also invest $10 million over four years to boost the Clean Energy Regulator’s auditing and inspection regime to increase the number of inspections for solar and battery systems.
On the training front, Labor will provide a $10 million Clean Energy Training Fund to support the training of workers such as solar and battery installers, and energy management system professionals.
With a strong focus on quality and safety, the program will require all systems to:
The CEC is pleased to see that a program of this kind is investing seriously in the auditing and inspection process, as well as providing further training to enhance the level of knowledge and expertise in the industry.
The Household Battery Program forms part of a comprehensive energy policy announced by Labor which also includes a commitment to the National Energy Guarantee as its preferred energy policy, an additional $10 billion of funding for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and funding for new poles and wires.
For more information you can read Labor's fact sheethere.
