From The New Daily (9/4/24)…
Battery boom: More Australians get storage after power prices rise
An increasing number of Australians are investing in household batteries, according to data that points towards a boom across the industry as the technology becomes cheaper.
Figures published on Tuesday by Sunwiz revealed a record 57,000 batteries were installed nationwide in 2023, up a staggering 21 per cent on last year, with homes playing a key role.
The cumulative number of home battery systems is more than 250,000 nationwide, equating to about 2770 megawatt hours of capacity. It’s a figure that’s only set to grow in coming years as households look to cash in on the increasing economic value of local storage technology.Indeed, Sunwiz said the economic value of batteries was rising amid a widening gap between electricity prices and what homeowners could get back selling their solar to the grid.
Sunwiz managing director Warwick Johnston – who wrote the report – told TND the payback period for a typical battery system had fallen to seven to eight years as upfront costs also plunge.
That’s lower than the 9.7 years estimated in a recent government-backed report, which predicted the time for a battery to pay for itself in savings would not hit seven years until 2025.
“Batteries have come down in price, that’s one factor,” Johnston said of the financial calculus pushing more households to take the plunge.
“The second factor is electricity prices have gone up significantly and the amount they give you for excess solar keeps going down.