Australia has installed 380,712 home battery storage systems, representing 10.7GWh of storage capacity, since the introduction of the Cheaper Home Batteries Program last year, Chris Bowen, Australia’s minister for climate change and energy, has disclosed.
Speaking at the Smart Energy Conference 2026 in Sydney yesterday (6 May), Bowen said the uptake of the subsidy scheme has exceeded that of the government’s electric vehicle (EV) tax discount, describing the response from households as taken up “with gusto by the Australian people.”
“The take-up of EVs pales in comparison to the alacrity with which Australians have taken up cheaper home batteries,” Bowen said.
“There was a lot of excitement here in this room last year when we announced our Cheaper Home Batteries Program.”
The Australian government launched the Cheaper Home Batteries Program subsidy last year following the 2025 federal election. Initial estimates of AU$2.3 billion (US$1.63 billion) in support through the scheme grew to AU$7.2 billion by 2030, representing more than a threefold increase from the original projections announced.
