Call to include electrification in expanded small scale solar scheme to help households dump gas

The federal government is facing renewed pressure to extend and expand the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) to include incentives for home batteries and electrification, after the latest national report card found major gaps in Australia’s emissions reduction progress.

Energy Savings Industry Association (ESIA) says that while the federal SRES has helped Australia become a global leader in rooftop solar uptake, the “untold story” is the lack of policy action at the federal level on reducing gas use.

This was evident in the latest the federal government’s annual emissions projections report 2024, released last week, which showed emissions from gas have increased from 2005 levels while transport emissions have also increased.

ESIA says a revamped SRES would be a “reasonable proven and effective mechanism” to address this problem, by shifting the scheme’s objectives to support electrification, including discounted home batteries and incentives to get off gas and install electric, energy efficient appliances.

As it stands, the incentives currently offered by the hugely successful SRES – for rooftop solar and solar hot water and heat pumps – are being dialled back gradually ahead of the scheme being phased out in 2030.

“The Commonwealth government needs to revamp the SRES instead of killing it off at the end of 2030,” says Esia president Ric Brazzale.

“Australian households and businesses need more equitable access, and industry needs the signals to invest and deliver upgrades nationwide.

“The SRES needs an ambitious target beyond 2030 to support these upgrade types which industry has proven can be delivered in a competitively priced and commercially viable way.”

Calls to extend the SRES beyond that date and expand it to include home batteries are coming thick and fast; particularly – as Paul McCormick explains here – the flip-side of the scheme’s huge success has been the duck curve grid instability issue.

“Without changes to the existing SRES and FiT schemes to provide support for household batteries, the export of excess rooftop power to the grid will continue to grow and increasingly destabilise the grid,” McCormick has said.

Brazzale has also argued for the SRES to be overhauled in his role as managing director of Green Energy Markets, saying here with Tristan Edis that simple modifications to the existing program could deliver 10,000MW of batteries by 2030.