Greens Go Big On Solar Battery Support

The Greens’ plan for cheaper and cleaner power for Australian homes and businesses announced on the weekend includes grants and loans for the installation of solar battery storage.

The Greens say government support has helped bring down the cost of solar panels, and the party wants to do the same with battery storage.

• Up to $5,000 grants for households ($10,000 for small businesses).
• Up to $10,000 further in low interest loans ($50,000 for small businesses).

The grants would have a maximum value of 50% of the total cost of the installation.

“Subsidies of this scale are also expected to support investment in the domestic battery manufacturing industry, creating thousands of jobs in battery manufacturing, installation and maintenance,” states the party.

How many of these grants and loans would be up for grabs and how long the program would run wasn’t mentioned.

Dollars For Ditching Gas

The Greens’ plan also spruiks grants for households and business owners of up to $25,000 and loans of up to $100,000 to help both ditch gas in favour of electrification.

The grant component would be limited to 20% of the total cost of the replacement project, but could be boosted to 50% for a household if complete disconnection from mains gas occurs within six months. The party is also wanting to work with state and territory governments to ban gas connections in new housing developments. Some local governments are already considering this move.

“The Greens’ electrification plan will enable every Australian to have the cheapest, safest and most reliable power in history.”

The power source that ticks all those boxes is renewable energy – and more work needs to be done there.

Power Australia Still Part Of Policy

Another ambitious element of the Greens’ plan is the previously announced creation of a 100% publicly-owned non-profit electricity retailer, Power Australia. The entity would offer all Australian businesses at-cost electricity, cheaper electricity for households and increase uptake of green energy. Power Australia would be created from Snowy Hydro.

In a comment that will surely make many power company executives’ and shareholders’ blood run cold, Greens leader Adam Bandt said:

“Electricity is an essential service and it shouldn’t be run for profit.”

How Will All This Be Paid For?

All these grants and such would amount to a significant chunk of change – and the money will come from:

• hitting the super-wealthy with a ‘billionaires tax’
• requiring hugely-profitable big corporations to pay a ‘corporate super-profits tax’
• axing subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.

The Greens say its measures have been costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office.

More on the policy initiatives can be found here.

Greens: “Your Vote Is Powerful”

While no-one is expecting the Greens to win the election – not even the Greens – Adam Bandt explained in a video from earlier this year how the party could be much better positioned to see some of their policies make it over the line; assuming they get enough votes.

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If environmental and energy policies are important to you in this election, we’ll have an in-depth article from SQ’s Ronald published in the next couple of days comparing how the major parties stack up.

Update:  Check out Ronald’s post comparing party policies on clean energy and environment.

Original Source: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/greens-battery-grants-mb2447/