roman October 31, 2018
South Australia’s Liberal government officially opened the country’s biggest support scheme for household battery storage, with up to 40,000 homes able to access grants and low-interest finance for both battery storage and new rooftop solar installations.
The $200 million scheme – half in grants and the other half in loans provided by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation – delivers on a pre-election promise from the newly elected Marshall government, but is heavily modified after the then Labor government proposed a similar scheme, but with more focus on low-income housing and more connection between installations.
South Australia – as most people are aware – is leading the country and possible the world in terms of penetration of wind and solar, with more than 50 per cent of its generation coming from these variable resources, and the Australian Energy Market Operator predicts that share could rise to near 100 per cent by 2025.
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The scheme could add up to 400MWh of storage to the grid – not quite four times the size of the 100MW/129MWh Tesla big battery next to the Hornsdale wind farm that has dominated interest from operators and market players – and this could time shift the output of solar, and provide essential grid services.South Australia’s minister for energy and mining Dan van Holst Pellekaan says the scheme will benefit all South Australians, because it will add to grid security.
“Not only will up to 40,000 households enjoy reduced electricity prices by purchasing a home battery system, but the installation of these systems will reduce demand on the network,” van Holst Pellekaan said in a statement.
“This will ultimately result in lower prices for all South Australian households”.
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More information on the Home Battery Scheme is available at www.homebatteryscheme.sa.gov.au or call 8463 3555. Businesses interested in becoming system providers can do so at www.homebatteryscheme.sa.gov.au/become-a-provider
—- full story from renewEconomy.com.au “south australia opens biggest household battery storage support scheme-99239”