Queensland to charge up household battery roll out

The Queensland Conservation Council welcomes indications that the Queensland Government will support the greater uptake of household battery storage via a new Battery Booster Program. When the program opens it will provide rebates of up to $4,000 for households to install a battery, playing a pivotal role in the roll out of renewables.

“Supporting households to match their bill-slashing solar with batteries is a forward-looking initiative that will increase reliability of our energy system and help many households bring their bills down,” said Stephanie Gray, Campaigner at Queensland Conservation Council. 

“Batteries also play a key role in bringing down wholesale power prices for everyone by providing affordable energy when we might otherwise have to rely on expensive gas generators.

“We’ve seen Queensland’s coal-fired power stations become less and less reliable as they get older. Coal generators also struggle in high heat, meaning as climate change drives hotter temperatures and more frequent heat waves they will be more likely to trip and withdraw very significant amounts of electricity from the system.

“Increasing the uptake of batteries, including household, community and network batteries, increases the resilience of our energy system and will help keep the lights on. Batteries can react with lightning speed to plug gaps in our electricity supply.

“As Queensland gears up to close our ageing coal-fired power stations it’s essential that we invest in all different forms of energy storage, like batteries, pumped hydro and even electric vehicles that can feed electricity back into the grid, so that we have cheap renewable energy available around the clock.

“We’d like to see the Queensland Government make this scheme available to Queenslanders as soon as possible.”

Media contact: Stephanie Gray 0425543006