Murray Green installed a solar battery in his Sydney home last year. (ABC News: Rebecca Armitage) |
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The Climate Council found nearly three-quarters of those surveyed believe batteries, coupled with solar systems, would become commonplace within 10 years.
Of those who already had solar systems, 68 per cent were considering adding a household storage battery.
Most said the primary motivation for buying a solar battery was to reduce power bills.
Only 6 per cent believed consumers were driven by the need to protect their homes from blackouts.
What do you think is the primary motivation for people
adding batteries to their home or business?
What Australians understand about solar batteries Source: Climate Council Get the data Embed |
"It shows that Australians do understand that renewables — particularly solar and increasingly battery storage — provide a solution to high power prices," the Climate Council's Andrew Stock said.
"I think it's very encouraging that Australians really do get the importance of new technology. There is very little appetite for keeping aging coal fire stations running in the Australian populace, frankly," he said.
'It protects us against price rises' |
Murray Green is keeping track of his power bills, which he says have halved since installing a battery (ABC News: Rebecca Armitage) |
"Right now, it's not really worth it to feed the electricity back into the grid so using the battery to store the power and then consume it yourself, it just seemed like a better way to use the solar panels," he said.
"Power prices are going up and so it makes sense to try to reduce the amount of power you're buying from the grid. I think now for me, the higher the prices go, the sooner the system will pay off.""It protects us against price rises in the future."
The price of storage batteries in the first half of 2017 only dropped by 5 per cent on the back of a significant fall at the end of last year.
Consultancy firm Sunwiz founder Warwick Johnston said while the number of battery installations had doubled from last year, many people were waiting for the price of batteries to drop significantly.
"We expect to see a price reduction of 30 per cent in the next couple of years," Mr Johnston said.
It's currently estimated to take 10 years to pay back the initial outlay for a solar and storage system, with batteries only having a decade-long shelf life.
Mr Johnston said he expected there would be a surge in uptake when it took only seven years to recoup the cost of the battery.
Should you wait for battery prices to drop? |
Murray Green installed 20 solar panels on his roof and a Tesla battery in his garage in August 2016 (Supplied: Murray Green) |
"In some states that have high power prices, analysis shows it's economical now to install batteries. Sunny states like South Australia and Queensland have relatively high power prices, so its quite economic to install battery systems," Mr Stock said.
Tesla is one of the more popular solar batteries in Australia (ABC News: Alex Mann) |
Energy economist and director of Carbon and Energy Markets, Bruce Mountain, agreed South Australians would benefit from installing batteries sooner rather than later.
"That is simply because battery and solar prices have come down, and in South Australia energy prices have gone up so much," Mr Mountain said.
Mr Mountain said he wanted the Federal Government to invest more in the local industry to bring down solar battery costs, instead of seeking to subsidise coal fire power generators like Liddell.
"They can accelerate the installation of these batteries, they can grow a local equipment suppliers and often than incentive creates new industry and scale economies," Mr Mountain said.
"The household would benefit, but the system as a whole would benefit as well, because a household of battery and solar gives to the grid a far more stable demand," he said.
Links
- Solar batteries 'exploding' in popularity with uptake tipped to triple: audit
- How battery storage could solve our energy problems
- How to slash your power prices — by using your hot water system as a battery
- How battery storage could solve our energy problems
- Solar batteries eclipse power poles in off-grid bush community
- Family-style vehicle to compete in Solar Challenge
- Millions of renters, unit owners locked out of solar savings
- Households urged to make money while the sun shines
- Why hasn't Darwin embraced solar power?
- Rural businesses look to alternative power as prices rise
- Lightweight 'printed solar' securing energy future
- Regional home and business owners drive solar boom
- Renewables getting cheaper all the time — here's why
- Solar batteries 'exploding' in popularity with uptake tipped to triple: audit
- Solar cells: How they work and the future of sunshine
- Bill shock looms as lucrative solar tariffs roll back, advocates warn
- Explained: Why feed-in tariffs began so high and have fallen so low
- Off-grid community transformed after swapping diesel for solar
- The Tesla Powerwall and what it means for Australia's energy market
- How solar energy farming could change the way we buy power
- Recharging home devices from mouldy bread could be the future
- Solar Impulse 2 arrives at home of Wright brothers
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