The $200 million Community Batteries for Household Solar program will enable Australians to store affordable solar energy for use during peak times, and to share excess power with other households in their area.
The Community Batteries for Household Solar program will help households and businesses to:
- lower electricity bills
- reduce pressure on the electricity grid for the broader community
- help us reach net zero by 2050.
As we ramp up renewable generation, we will need more energy storage to deliver secure and affordable energy for Australian businesses and households.
The Community Batteries for Household Solar program will help to provide this storage by deploying 400 community-scale batteries for up to 100,000 households across Australia.
This element of the program will enable community and industry groups, businesses, government agencies and research organisations to apply for up to $29 million in grants to install community batteries in specific locations across Australia:
The grant guidelines for the first 58 community batteries are now available at:
- business.gov.au stream 1: will deliver on the government's commitments to deploy community batteries in specific locations (56 batteries)
- business.gov.au stream 2: will deliver on the government's commitments to deploy community batteries in specific locations by specific project proponents (2 batteries).
We have released the guidelines before the program opens in January 2023 to give interested groups time to develop high-quality applications that demonstrate benefits for communities and value for money.
Further grant opportunities for community batteries will be offered by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), which will develop a program to deliver the remaining 342 batteries of the government's commitment following a stakeholder consultation process.
