About 250,000 of Australia’s 4m households with solar panels have batteries but storage is growing faster than take-up and consumers get almost nothing for their exports.About 250,000 of Australia’s 4m households with solar panels have batteries but storage is growing faster than take-up and consumers get almost nothing for their exports.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup Those able to supply power to the grid between 4pm-9pm – presumably from batteries for the later part of that period – would be paid 2.3 cents/kWh.Ausgrid says it has 280,000 customers with solar panels – ranging from eastern parts of Sydney and coastal regions to the north and south – and expects 180,000 more to have them by 2030.
Electric hot water systems – including heat pumps and pool pumps – are examples of appliances that don’t need anyone at home to operate. Dishwashing, clothes washing and drying, and electric cars can also soak up extra power rather than export it to avoid any feed-in charge. However, Heidi Lee Douglas, the chief executive of Solar Citizens, a lobby group, said many households with solar had already shifted their demand. Not everybody washes clothes every day, nor needs to charge up their electric vehicles, she said.