Queensland households looking to secure a generous rebate on a home battery will need to get cracking as the initiative is ending very soon. But be cautious.
In a nutshell, rebates of up to $4,000 have been available for eligible Queenslanders to purchase and install household battery systems connected to new or existing rooftop solar power systems since February this year.
A $3,000 rebate is available to eligible applicants with a combined annual household taxable income of $180,000 or less. A higher $4,000 rebate is available for low-income households with an annual income of less than $66,667. Conditional approval is needed before applying, and applicants must use an approved installer and an approved battery system.
SQ Founder Finn published a detailed QLD Battery Booster rebate guide explaining the process shortly after the program launched.
9 Days To Deadline
Originally, the program was to end once the initial allocated funding was exhausted, which was enough for around 2,000 rebates. But the Queensland Government topped up funding with another $6 million in mid-April. So, in total, around 3,500 rebates were to be available and unless something has changed, it’s looking like most of those have already been snapped up.
All good things must come to an end and the Battery Booster program’s end is near. Queenslanders have until 11:59 pm on 8 May 2024 to get quotes1 and submit an application to the Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority (QRIDA) for conditional approval. Note that conditional approval doesn’t guarantee final approval.
The program stopped accepting Approved Installer applications on 24 April 2024.
Scam Warning
If you want to grab a rebate, move fast – but carefully. Whether it’s for solar panels, batteries or any other big-ticket item, whenever there are government incentives involved it tends to bring out all sorts of characters on the marketing, supply and installation end.
Business Queensland has warned:
“We are aware of websites created by third parties about the Battery Booster program. Fraudulent, misleading or phishing websites could take advantage of Queenslanders wishing to participate in the program.”
I came across a dedicated site with (now outdated) information that was gathering registrations of interest, with view to supposedly connecting applicants to local installers. The operators of the site don’t identify themselves and the privacy and terms pages were non-existent. But this doesn’t mean anything particularly nefarious was going on. Still, be cautious.
The official QLD Government page for information on the program is here.
Are Home Batteries Now Worth It?
A battery is a big investment and whether installing one in Queensland is worth it will depend on your goals and energy consumption profile. For example, having backup power is invaluable for some. But if we’re just discussing battery payback – again, maybe.
In 2024 and under certain conditions (explained on the page linked to above), simple payback for a 10kWh, $10,000 battery installed in Queensland is around 9.7 years for households on a flat tariff electricity plan and around 7 years for those on a time-of-use tariff.
But everyone’s mileage will vary, and in some cases, greatly – for example if a rebate is involved. To get a better idea of how much you could save in your household’s circumstances, give SQ’s solar and battery calculator a whirl. Remember to factor in the rebate when selecting a battery as that will accelerate payback significantly.
Footnotes
- If you’re using the SolarQuotes service for quotes, remember to add ‘QLD Battery Rebate’ when asked on the form for any other details. ↩
About Michael Bloch
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How many battery systems go for under $10K? I had a quote earlier in the year for a basic Sungrow ~10kW option and that came back just under $15K. Even a QLD rebate wouldn’t drop that to $10K.
RoI would be about 13 years – 19 years without a rebate. Either battery prices need to crash substantially, or electricity needs to go way way up, but not connection fees as off-grid is already much closer to a viable option.
Shop around? $15k seems high unless you want three phase a large inverter for full house backup.
It includes a battery inverter for a 3 phase house, yes, but honestly that’s not the expensive part.
Since the current inverter isn’t particularly old, and electricity isn’t particularly expensive when compared to batteries, it’s no sale for now.
I’m aware ‘my’ installer isn’t the cheapest around, but it’s a decent company. You get what you pay for?
Do you think we’ll see another rebate program for batteries in QLD?
I was going to wait to install batteries when it became more affordable. But when I saw the Rebate, I didn’t hesitate as I was fortunate to fall into the low income bracket with money saved to be able to afford it and receive $4000 back. I bought the BYD 16.6kW battery from Solar Quotes recommended businesses (Expert Electrical) who were outstanding. I received a pretty good deal as I used them for the initial solar install and as a return customer, I bought the battery for $15k, which was $11k after the rebate. I am now 41 days in since my battery install and I have managed 100% self-sufficiency. I am very impressed with my set-up. I can run my Daikin 14kW ducted AC all night (just to test my overnight maximum load that I’ll ever use) and the battery has not dropped below 25% by morning (Note: I cool the house down before sundown using solar directly to reduce excessive initial start up load draw on the battery) When the sun comes up, it then charges back to 100% within 2 or so hours, very impressive IMO. Usually fully charged again by 9-10pm. My solar set up is 13.2kW Jinko panels with the Fronius Primo 10kW GEN24. I decided to oversize for my current use and I am so glad I did. Time will tell on return in investment, but that was not my priority, energy independence was my goal and any return on my investment is a bonus. Solar Quotes has been invaluable.
Thanks David,
Kind words are much appreciated. Please be sure to leave some reviews for the equipment and installers.
Cheers
If you don’t mind me asking, what numbers did you assume for your ROI, or was ROI not a factor in your decision making?
When I rang ‘my company’ the chap quoting mentioned there were a lot of people ringing but since batteries don’t really give a ROI they were ultimately disappointed.
As I said in my post above, my calculations showed a 19 year ROI – 13 years if I factor in a QLD rebate. Either way it’s not something that can be justified, especially when there’s cheap reliable coal power available via the grid. : – P.
For myself I think I was looking at about 6.5 kWh/day of use with a 10kW battery. Anything less than about 50c/kWh for grid power and batteries aren’t viable. On the other hand if we have a few more years with 20% increases the maths may look slightly different!!!