A New South Wales householder has slashed her electricity bill to zero using a solar storage battery installed in her Tweed Heads home, on the state’s far north coast.
Wendy Litchfield told Yahoo Finance that her regular bill of $250-$300 reduced to nothing through smart use of household appliances and energy storage.
There’s an added bonus, too: Wendy receives credits on most billing cycles for feeding excess energy back into the grid. These include the significant amounts of $192.31 and $208.
The multiple benefits of a solar storage battery
Solar batteries connected to rooftop solar panels help households reduce energy bills.
However, they also offer other benefits. Wendy Litchfield installed batteries linked to her solar panels primarily for environmental reasons.
This zero-emission technology plays a genuine part in reducing Australia’s harmful greenhouse gas emissions, which are still rising despite our commitment to the Paris Agreement.
Battery storage also helps Wendy avoid power outages. She can use stored solar energy during blackouts. Wendy says this is important because her husband has a disability.
States introduce battery loans and rebates
State government schemes offer rebates and loans for solar panels and solar battery storage.
The Victorian Labor Government is extending its Solar Homes initiative to include half-price solar batteries for 10,000 households.
A typical 11 kWh battery like Tesla Powerwall 2 or Enphase can reduce annual electricity bills by around $650.
The recently re-elected NSW Coalition Government will help up to 300,000 households cut power bills using no-interest loans to buy solar panel and battery systems.
Meanwhile, the South Australian Home Battery Scheme offers rebates to around 40,000 households. They then receive grants up to $6,000 for a home solar battery.
Solar batteries boost virtual power plants Australia-wide
A virtual power plant (VPP) is now being trialled in NSW. It includes 233 households across 170 suburbs in Sydney, the Central Coast and Hunter Valley.
A VPP draws energy stored in multiple household batteries into a single power pool. This can feed back into the grid during times of peak demand. It’s manager – often a power company – can sell the VPP’s combined power to the market, creating financial advantages for VPP members.
Meanwhile, South Australia is creating possibly the world’s largest VPP. Tesla, AGL and the state government are installing solar storage batteries in more than 50,000 low-income Housing SA homes.
Canberra also has its own award-winning VPP made up of 500 households.
