The Australian energy storage outfit whose customers include federal energy minister Chris Bowen has gone into voluntary administration, unable to stay afloat in the sea of “cheaper imported batteries” that has flooded the market under Bowen’s hugely successful federal rebate.
Brisbane-based battery maker RedEarth Energy Storage appointed administrator Travis Pullen from B&T Advisory on September 25, according to an ASIC notice published last week, with a first meeting of the creditors of the company scheduled for October 8.
The Australian Financial Review reports that RedEarth stakeholders, led by investment firms Ord Minnett (25.9% share) and Perennial Value Management (14% share), were told on the weekend that the business had been experiencing “significant cash flow difficulties” that had now become “overwhelming.”
“Over the past months [Red Earth Energy Storage] has experienced damaging levels of competition from cheaper imported batteries, particularly in the residential sector,” the letter from the board reportedly says.
“This competitive pressure is likely to extend during the coming financial year, placing further strain on REES’s cash position and ability to continue as a standalone business.”
The AFR also reports that RedEarth had put the feelers out for a buyer of the company and, before that, had hoped to list on the ASX. Renew Economy has sought a statement from the company.
RedEarth launched onto the residential battery market in 2021 when its Troppo product became the first fully Australian designed and assembled home batteries to get Clean Energy Council approval.
In 2024 – in the era before the launch of the federal Labor’s Cheaper Home Batteries scheme – the Troppo was revealed as the battery of choice of the energy minister, with Bowen sharing that he had bought one after a visit to the company’s stand at the 2023 Smart Energy Conference & Exhibition.
In 2025, the company unveiled its next generation Troppo Ultra, with a boost to capacity of 5.6 kWh per unit and an in-built Battery Management System, which is used in the company’s Gecko, all-in-one plug-and-play home battery energy storage system.
The Gecko uses up to eight Troppo batteries for a total capacity of 32.8 kWh – with the Troppo Ultra it can expand even further by up to 44.8 kWh.
In an interview with Renew Economy sister site One Step Off the Grid ahead of the 2025 All-Energy Australia conference, last October, RedEarth CEO Marc Sheldon said the main challenge the company was experiencing as a result of the federal rebate was in keeping up with demand.
“Let’s put it this way, in four weeks in September we delivered 4 megawatt-hours (MWh),” Sheldon said at the time.
“The issue we have right now is we’re literally struggling to keep up. Basically we get our cell packs built and, even prior to them being shipped, that container is already sold.
“That’s been a bit of a challenge for us. So we’re increasing our frequency quite significantly. It’s been very interesting.”
In those very early days of the rebate, Sheldon also said that RedEarth’s home battery offering was “very competitive” with the top three imported products that, at that time, were dominating the market.
But by May of this year, the number of batteries installed through the scheme had sailed past 400,000, and had attracted new market players like China-based Fox ESS, which installed a mind-boggling 25,000 of its low-cost systems in April, alone, having installed 19,000 systems in March.
At the same time, RedEarth announced that it had expanded its team to 12 staff, including Australian-based qualified electricians, to support its installer partners and boost its home-grown attributes of quality, service and accountability.
This has included making every RedEarth battery fully traceable, with a record of images of each battery being built, wired and tested, that can be tapped to support new installations and to troubleshoot any issues that crop up.
“While global OEM/manufacturers use global call centres to relay messages for technical support requests that could take up to two weeks to be addressed, we’re doubling down on our focus to lift quality standards for our installer partners and to deliver a quality installation for every … customer,” Sheldon told Renew Economy in May.
“We have built a real technical support operation with qualified electricians in Australia, not just a call centre. When an installer calls us, we can see exactly how a battery was built, how it was tested, and how it left our factory. That is only possible because RedEarth manufactures our batteries in Australia.”
If you would like to join more than 29,000 others and get the latest clean energy news delivered straight to your inbox, for free, please click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter.
