The Cheaper Home Batteries Program is a federal discount of around 30% on the upfront cost of an eligible home battery. There is no income test and no application. We take the value off your invoice.
How the discount works
The program started on 1 July 2025 and delivers the discount through small-scale technology certificates under the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme, the same mechanism that has been reducing the cost of rooftop solar for years. Batteries now earn certificates too.
In practice it looks like this. We quote your battery system, we calculate the certificates it is entitled to, we claim them, and the value comes straight off what you pay. There is no form for you to fill in and no waiting for a payment to arrive months later.
The discount is worth around 30% of the upfront cost of an eligible system with a nominal capacity between 5kWh and 100kWh, and it is calculated on the first 50kWh of usable capacity. Since 1 May 2026 it has been tiered. The full rate applies to the first 14kWh of usable capacity, 60% of the rate from 14kWh to 28kWh, and 15% from 28kWh to 50kWh.
We do not publish a dollar per kilowatt hour figure, because no government source publishes one and the certificate value is not fixed. Your quote shows the actual discount applied to the actual system.
Who is eligible?
There is no income test and no property value test, which makes this a far wider program than the state rebates most people are used to. The conditions are about the equipment and the installation instead.
- The battery needs a nominal capacity between 5kWh and 100kWh.
- It has to be on the Clean Energy Council approved product list.
- It has to be installed by an accredited installer.
- If the system is grid-connected, the battery has to be capable of joining a virtual power plant. You do not have to actually join one.
- One system per premises.
- Portable batteries and electric vehicles are excluded.
You can pair the battery with a new solar system or with panels already on your roof. Our own team does the installation, we do not use subcontractors, and we work on grid-connected systems only.
What happened to the Victorian battery rebate and loans
Solar Victoria's interest-free battery loans are closed. They closed to applications in 2025, so the federal program is now the main way to bring down the cost of a battery in Victoria.
Victorian support does still exist for other work. The solar panel rebate and the hot water rebate are both open, both with income and property tests, and we cover those on our rebates page.
One piece of terminology is worth clearing up, because the old names are still floating around. Accreditation for installers and designers moved from the Clean Energy Council to Solar Accreditation Australia in 2024, so "Clean Energy Council accredited installer" is out of date. The old Clean Energy Council Approved Solar Retailer program has been replaced by New Energy Tech Approved Seller status under the New Energy Tech Consumer Code, or NETCC, which the Clean Energy Council administers. The Clean Energy Council does still maintain the approved product lists for panels, inverters and batteries, so a CEC approved product is a real thing to look for on a quote.
Does it pay to act sooner rather than later?
Yes, and this is the part of the program with a clock on it. The certificate rate steps down every six months, and the scheme ends in 2030. The same battery installed later in the scheme earns fewer certificates than it does now, so the discount only gets smaller from here.
Whether a battery suits you is a separate question from whether the discount is good, and we will answer that one honestly. Storage pays off when your panels are exporting a lot through the day and your big loads land in the evening. If someone is home during the day and you already use most of what your roof makes, extra panels may do more for you than a battery. A battery will not remove your bill either, because daily supply charges stay whatever you do.
Next steps
At Midland Solar we have been installing solar in Bendigo for over 10 years, from Quarry Hill out to Kangaroo Flat, Castlemaine, Heathcote and Maldon, so here is how we would approach it with you.
Book a site assessment
Call us on (03) 5439 5317 or use our contact page. We look at your roof, your switchboard, your existing solar if you have it, and where a battery could safely be mounted.
Bring your last 12 months of bills
We size systems from your last 12 months of electricity bills so the quote matches how your household actually uses power. No guesswork and no overselling.
Compare quotes with the discount shown
Ask any installer to show the Cheaper Home Batteries discount as a line on the quote, along with the usable capacity and the warranty conditions. That is what makes two quotes comparable.
Book the installation
Our own team does the work, usually in a single visit and often in as little as 4 hours. We handle the compliance paperwork and the certificate claim.
If you would like to know what the discount is worth on a system that fits your place, send us your last few bills through our contact page and we will work it out with you. No pressure either way.
Figures in this post are current as at 30 July 2026. Program rules do change, so check the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water at dcceew.gov.au for the current detail, or ask us and we will tell you where things stand.
