Australia's growing household battery market has been spurred by soaring electricity prices, subsidies and resilience issues. Nationwide, cell adoption in new photovoltaic installations will jump to nearly 15% in 2022 from about 8% in 2021. Installation rates remain relatively low compared to European markets as the continued use of feed-in tariffs (transmission payments provided by retailers) limits solar adoption.
While most Australian solar owners receive flat transmission payments, starting in Victoria, electricity retailers are introducing time-varying rates, which is promising for batteries.
Under this scheme, these owners could be paid higher or lower depending on the time of day they export solar power to the grid, which would encourage them to install batteries to store excess solar power during the day and export it at night when prices are typically higher. . Other Australian states are likely to follow suit, starting with South Australia. The state has been exploring rates for different time periods since 2020.
