The NSW state government is offering financial incentives to supercharge the uptake of household batteries feeding rooftop solar energy into the grid.
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00:00 When capturing the sun's energy, there can be too much of a good thing.
00:06 Peak demand causes grid stability issues on the hottest days, when we have multiple afternoons
00:11 of heat in a row.
00:12 That's where household batteries come in.
00:15 They can be connected to form something called a virtual power plant and feed energy to the
00:19 grid in exchange for payment.
00:21 We're moving from a system of three or four coal-fired power plants that provide most
00:27 of the baseload power to literally mini power stations on the top of every house.
00:32 Now the state government is bringing in a scheme aimed at sparking a higher uptake.
00:37 Household batteries typically start at $10,000.
00:40 Under the program, households will get a discount of between $1,600 and $2,400, depending on
00:46 the size of the battery.
00:48 Southern Sydney resident Carmela Savoca says it's enough to get her over the line.
00:52 I was concerned about the cost and how long it would take to pay it off.
00:56 The repayment time can vary wildly.
00:59 From 10 years payback right down to about six year payback.
01:03 That's best case.
01:04 If everything doesn't line up, that payback can stretch out for over 20 years.
01:08 AusGrid, Essential Energy and Endeavour Energy have announced two-way tariffs, meaning households
01:13 will be penalised for exporting solar energy during the middle of the day.
01:17 That's a really heavy-handed, blunt approach.
01:20 They're leading with the stick rather than the carrot.
01:22 Until enough renewable generation and storage is in the system, the government is paying
01:27 Origin Energy to keep the state's largest coal-fired power plant firing beyond its scheduled
01:32 retirement next year.
01:34 The O'Farrell government sold a wiring a decade ago for $50 million.
01:38 Now it could cost taxpayers nine times that to keep it going.
01:42 I think it was a terrible deal for taxpayers.
01:44 The solar incentives begin in November.
01:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]