Labor’s solar battery con – won’t help most Aussies (off-grid, rooftop solar)

The truth of Labor’s solar battery con is that it affects less than 10% of Australian households, and the 4M that have solar panel installations may not be battery-ready, many requiring expensive retrofits or simply not being able to afford it.

Before you think this is a political opinion article, it is not. Please consider that CyberShack has significant expertise in rooftop solar, including

• A three-part series that follows the path from the desire to have solar (Part 1) to the investigation into solar (Part 2) and the result (Part 3).
• A rooftop solar guide for Strata buildings
• We will publish actual figures for the test home in July.

The Labour campaign promise

$2.3 billion Cheaper Home Batteries Program from 1 July 2025, reducing the cost of a typical installed battery by 30% – with over one million new batteries expected by 2030.

There are no significant published policy details.

Here are a few of the reasons why Labor’s solar battery con may not work for you

Not all will apply, and statements are general in nature.

History – Rudd’s Pink Batts Disaster

In 2009, former PM Kevin Rudd promised to insulate two million homes in two and a half years at around $2.45 billion. This was a key component of the Australian Government’s Home Energy Efficiency Program—just like the new Battery scheme!

With no installation certification requirements or formal safety training (at even the basest level), new installers flooded the market (it went from 200 qualified installers to 8300 largely unqualified ones). Every man and his trailer were now a potential insulation business, combing the streets and knocking on doors with a cheery offer of ‘free insulation’ to surprised residents.

Many things happened

• The price of installed pink batts doubled (or more). After all, the Government was paying
• Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap. Many homes never got the pink batts, although the installer was paid (sounds like NDIS).
• Installers were paid rebates on inflated costs to offer a no-cost sale.
• 30% of a sample of 13,000 post-plan audits found significant concerns. These included installation, damage to plasterboard ceilings, installations that could have been deadly, and more.
• Supply could not keep up with demand. Horribly inefficient insulation was often used (shredded newspaper, reflective foil, and spray foam were common) or cheap, sub-standard imports from China.
• People died
• But the Government received the green energy credit and certificates for its part in reducing global warming.

The scheme was such a disaster that it was stopped in early 2010. Only 1.1 million homes were done (some very poorly), and $1.4 billion was paid out.

A Royal Commission found

• Widespread installer fraud
• The government’s inability to handle such a program
• A manifestly unsuitable product
• No OH&S or installation training.
• Poor planning and poor implementation. 

This was another brilliant Rudd thought bubble akin to the NBN scheme hatched on the back of a serviette!

The Battery scheme qualifies as another thought bubble. We hope that these points are helpful to you.

Rebates = Cowboys

 Already, less ethical rooftop solar companies are installing battery systems. They won’t commission them until after the election to get the rebate. If Labour fails, then you pay the lot!

The big cowboys can offer this, but the reputable local installers can’t self-finance this sales style. They are already going to the wall.

Larger companies are pressuring Chinese manufacturers with the promise of more orders to produce more cheap, nasty batteries. These will help them make a super profit when sold at traditional retail prices!

And the biggest porky is that a 5kW battery is all you need. A family of four will need between 12 and 15kWh battery just to make it through the night.

Update 15/4/25

Reader Ted from Moonee Ponds, Victoria, wrote:

Two months ago, I got a quote from one of the ‘big’ guys for a 5kW battery at $4800 installed. They have just contacted me, and the new quote is $6,900 less the 30% rebate ($4760). The battery can be installed now, but it won’t be commissioned until after the election. They warned that battery prices were about to skyrocket, so I had better accept the quote now.”

While the video below is about the NSW Government rebate, you can simply substitute the Federal Labor Government.

Battery Size

A 5kWh battery (5000 watts for an hour or 1000W for five hours) is barely enough to power a typical home’s 5kWh overnight base-load (fridge, IoT, lighting, TV, cooking). Add an Airfryer, kettle, toaster, dishwasher, and clothes dryer (1000-2000W each), and you can see why you need a bigger battery.

These batteries typically cost $4000-$6000 plus installation, which can be another thousand or so. You want a more expensive LFP battery, not a Lithium-ion firebomb. Cheap batteries are $400-600 per kWh, and better AC-couped ones are closer to $1000 per kWh.

A 10kWh battery will handle the base and cooking loads for a family of four. It may give you enough spare capacity to export some to the grid.

A 15kWh battery is the best investment if your panel capacity can provide enough charge.

These batteries typically cost $1,000 per kWh or more.

Where are you going to put it?

Most batteries are barely weather resistant IP56 (not IP67 weather-proof). They should be under cover, in the garage, etc. Few are marine or hazardous environment rated (essential if you live within a few km of the sea).

Most low-cost installs have the inverter screwed to a convenient outside wall. That is another thousand dollars or so for new cabling to a safe location.

A 5kW battery weighs 40 to 60kg, and a 10kW battery is twice that. These weights may be too much for a wall mount needing a concrete base.

Charge rate

A typical DC 6kW system (15 x 400W panels using a string inverter with a 70% efficiency) will be lucky to produce 6-7kWh DC in a typical day. That may cover home use during the day, but where is the extra 6kW to recharge the battery? Don’t be fooled – solar panel capacity needs to cover use and charging.

Even the best, most ideally placed/pitched 10kW rooftop solar (25 x 400W panels using Enphase micro-inverters with a 97.3% efficiency) tops out at 35-37kWh (350-370W per panel per day). Of course, this handles 10kWh charging, and some export to the grid.

You may need a new inverter

You can add AC-coupled (more expensive) batteries fairly easily to most existing inverters. But DC-coupled (cheaper) may require a new inverter or hybrid system. A new hybrid inverter will cost from $2500 to over $6000.

You can also buy a battery with an integrated AC inverter. We won’t discuss DC (cheap) versus AC-coupled (better) batteries except to say that AC is way safer and more efficient.

New app

Only fully integrated systems like Enphase can use the same app for the inverter, battery, panels, and EV chargers. This app monitors battery life, condition, faults, etc., which is vital to maintaining battery charge capacity. The app also gives you the option of using the system

• Off-grid (microgrid)
• Full backup (especially useful in bad weather when blackouts occur)
• Low-cost on-grid power to recharge at night.

Most add-on batteries require separate apps and a costly Wi-Fi/ Ethernet/Internet comms unit that does not interact with the solar inverter.

Smart meter – you may not be in control

Rooftop solar and batteries require a smart meter. This theoretically means that the energy provider can:

• Manage your grid feed-in (stopping it when the grid does not need it).
• Manage battery (using it when the grid cannot keep up with peak demand).
• Change energy tariffs to time of use or even quarterly time of use.

We are not suggesting anything more than someone else may have control of your battery and take your power when you need it. Better batteries allow you to set some reserves.

In the future, that meter may allow your battery to be connected to a Virtual Power Plant (VPP), and you sell and buy energy from that at different rates. With a VPP, you lose all control.

That raises the impact of VPP on battery life and warranty. Let’s say the manufacturer offers a 10-year limited warranty based on 4,000 recharges (one per day) and a 60% depth-of-discharge cycle (10-70%). It is too early to calculate the impact of the VPP on warranty. Our expert says a VPP could see a 10-year battery warranty expire in half the time. To be clear, the warranty is based on a fixed number of full discharge cycles, and VPP can increase these.

The ABC got it right—smart meters are not for everyone and give more power to the energy supplier than they should.

Vikki Campion raised issues about Labor’s solar battery con in the Daily Telegraph on 12 April 2025

• The $2.3 billion scheme is taxpayer-funded (our money). It is expected to result in 1 million battery installations by 2030. This is fewer than 10% of the current 10 million households. Ergo, 9 million are subsidising the few elite that can afford solar panels and batteries.
• That 9 million households will pay ever-increasing electricity costs that have risen 47% in the past 5 years. These are in line to rise by at least 30-40% in the next five years.
• It does not help renters, apartment dwellers/owners, or homes with the wrong roof to support rooftop solar.
• It does not help those who cannot afford a battery.

Is a solar battery worth it?

• From our perspective, an appropriately sized battery that meets nighttime and blackout needs is a massive convenience and reduces grid dependence to around 10-20% (for rainy days). So, if your bill was $4000 per year, it will be $400-800 now.
• Is the $12,000+ installed battery purchase price worth it? Our entire system currently has a 10-12 year payback based on 10% grid dependency. Electricity prices will continue to skyrocket. Without a battery grid, dependency would be around 50% or a 20-year payback.
• We will get an even shorter payback period if we buy an EV and use more solar energy.

The caveat is that low-energy users won’t benefit at all.

CyberShack’s view: Labor’s solar battery con won’t help most Aussies

We started this article with extensive interviews with a battery maker, solar installer, solar importer, and energy use expert. We only wanted the ‘tech’ – no political statements allowed.

Before we could ask a question, all responded that Rebates = Cowboys. They unanimously told us that these types of rebate schemes never deliver the government’s objectives or a better outcome for consumers. Hence, our reference to Rudd’s disastrous pink batts scheme earlier, not to mention NDIS rorts and many others.

And 1 million batteries is a drop in the bucket for 10 million households (about 4M have rooftop solar). The scheme needs much closer scrutiny, as it does not add up for Joe and Jane Average.

As Thomas Edison said, “Vision without execution is hallucination”. That sounds like Labor’s solar battery con.