70,000 Australian homes to install energy storage by 2019: report

Government subsidies, loans, and demand response schemes are helping spur growth.

Residential energy storage systems could dominate Australia’s near future as around 70,000 households are expected to install batteries this year, BloombergNEF revealed.

According to a brief, the country is expected to be the largest and most attractive residential energy storage market and take up 30% of global demand by 2019.

Government efforts are one of the factors that could drive this growth — as seen by $105.71m (A$147m) in subsidies, as well as low-interest loans and demand response schemes.

“If the federal opposition wins the election this year, a further A$200m will subsidize another 100,000 household batteries from 2020,” said BloombergNEF.

South Australia has already attracted Sonnen GmbH, AlphaESS and Eguana Technologies to set up local assembly facilities.

“Whilst the path could be bumpy, BNEF expects Australia to continue to be an attractive market for residential storage after policy support ends – thanks to its high penetration of household solar (already one in five) and high electricity costs,” BNEF added.