Whitlam voters line up to plug in to power savings

While high achievers were hailed at this week's Made in the Illawarra: Innovation, Energy and Manufacturing Expo at Canberra's Parliament House, back at the grassroots, suburbs such as Dapto have quietly been shining the way in household electrification.  

In the seat of Whitlam, 2118 families and businesses saw the savings sense in the federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program, and the Illawarra electorate now ranks among the top 20 solar storage adopters nationwide. 

“We’re doing really well,” Whitlam MP Carol Berry said. 

“This is a story of impressive take-up of this scheme in the regions. So almost 80% of the take-up of this subsidy around a cheaper home battery has been in regional and rural areas.”

New government data shows regions are trouncing cities in the race to install cheaper home batteries, accounting for more than two-thirds of the subsidies, which cut battery costs by about 30%.

“On average, we think people are making a $4000 saving,” Carol said.

“[Across Australia] we've hit this amazing milestone of over 250,000 households, small businesses and community organisations that have chosen to take up the subsidy and put in a home battery, which is fantastic.”

Carol’s family are among those who have a home battery. “We have only just recently got ours, so we're still undertaking that process of really looking at what time we should put our appliances on to maximise the battery,” she said. 

“We made that decision to get a home battery because we have solar panels, and because we're a family and a lot of our appliance use is either first thing in the morning or late at night, getting a home battery makes a lot of sense.”

The highest uptake in the Whitlam electorate is in postcode 2530, where Dapto and other suburbs between the mountains and the lake are blazing a trail, putting in 432 home batteries since the program began in July 2025.

“I think people can see that it's a great mechanism to reduce their power bills,” Carol said. “There's an economic incentive there, so I imagine that that is the greatest determinant. 

“We've also got people taking the opportunity to get a solar array and a battery at the same time. 

“This is a very positive story in terms of the take-up of renewable energy across Australia. We know that we lead the world in relation to rooftop solar – over 4 million installations across Australia. We're really proud of that capacity that we're building into the grid.

“We also know that over 50% of our energy needs were fuelled by renewable energy in the last couple of months. So that's wonderful. 

“We are hoping that we can continue on this trajectory of increased reliance on renewable energy across Australia.”

In neighbouring Cunningham – home to the Electrify 2515 Community Pilot which is now powering on to include 2516 (Bulli) in its research trial – 1624 homes and businesses have taken up the home battery subsidy.

Denise Aubourg, a volunteer at not-for-profit group Electrify Illawarra, said: “We jumped at the Cheaper Home Batteries rebate opportunity to purchase a bigger battery than we otherwise could have afforded and it is proving to be a great investment. Our combined electricity and EV fuel bill for this quarter is projected to be less than $100.”   

Denise thinks the strong response is a sign the government got the size of the rebate right. Next, she’d like to see the same done to encourage EV uptake.

With the war in the Middle East putting the spotlight on rising fossil fuel prices, and recent research from Nordic countries showing hip-pocket pain at the petrol pump affects adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), it's likely many drivers may be thinking about making the switch. 

Carol said there are already some incentives for EVs, including Luxury Car Tax exemptions, the Electric Car Discount and Driving the Nation Fund. At state level, the NSW government is investing in various initiatives, including $149 million in EV fast-charging grants.

“Unfortunately, we don't know when that conflict will finish and how it will finish,” Carol said. “We are in a period of global uncertainty, so I think it is in people's interests, if they can afford it, to go down that pathway of electrification.”

According the Climate Council's new report, Fuel shock: why clean energy is our best defence, EV drivers save about $1,400 a year on fuel and maintenance, and are largely insulated from oil price spikes.

Cheaper but not cheap

After the Cheaper Home Batteries rebate, prices may range from about $8000 for a 10kWh system to $15,000 for 15kWh. This is still a big outlay for many families, and the University of Wollongong’s Energy Futures Network Director, Ty Christopher, has long said the answer to energy “haves and have-nots” lies in community batteries and community cooperatives.

Carol Berry said there’s good news on this front, with four new community batteries set to be announced in Whitlam over coming weeks.

“Across the Illawarra, we have 22 community batteries. There are eight in Dapto, for example, and those eight batteries in Dapto are servicing 300 households. 

“This investment in community batteries is really important.

“Community cooperatives can work really well too. We have tended as a government to invest in community batteries.”

Carol said she has had lots of interest in renewables at her mobile offices, especially from renters, and the government is thinking about how to make benefits accessible to all.

“Our Solar Sharer scheme will start on the 1st of July this year and that's where people, if their energy retailer is part of this system, can potentially access three hours of free power during the day. So that's an initiative I would encourage people to have a look at.”

Denise at Electrify Illawarra said complementary incentives at different levels of government were also boosting clean energy adoption, pointing to the more than 330 households in Kiama, Shellharbour, Shoalhaven and Wollongong that joined last year’s Illawarra Shoalhaven Community Renewables Program.

Registrations for interest in round 2 of the program – which gives residents access to community bulk discounts on solar, batteries and Virtual Power Plant solutions – opened on March 2.

Find out more

 Electrify Illawarra will have a stand at two community events in March:

• Saturday, March 14, 10am-2pm: Climate Action Week event at the Science Centre, UOW Innovation Campus
• Sunday, March 29, 10am-2pm, Greenfest Sustainability Expo by Corrimal Rotary at Corrimal High School