The 2026 home battery rebate, explained

What the rebate actually is

The Cheaper Home Batteries Program started on 1 July 2025. It is not a cheque from the government and there is no form for you to fill in. It runs through the same scheme that has discounted rooftop solar for years: the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme.

When an eligible battery is installed, it creates a number of small-scale technology certificates, or STCs. Energy retailers are legally required to buy these certificates each year, so they have a market value. Your installer or retailer takes the certificates and knocks their value off your invoice. That is the whole mechanism. The number on your written quote should already have it taken off.

How many certificates a battery gets

Two numbers decide it: how much usable capacity the battery has, in kWh, and the STC factor for the period the battery is installed in.

For every kWh of usable capacity, the battery earns the STC factor in certificates. For installs between 1 May and 31 December 2026 the factor is 6.8. So a battery with 10 kWh usable earns 10 times 6.8, which is 68 certificates.

What changed on 1 May 2026

The government announced two changes in December 2025, and the Clean Energy Regulator put them in place on 1 May 2026.

1. Bigger batteries now get less per kWh

The rebate now tapers as the battery gets bigger:

• 0 to 14 kWh usable: the full STC factor on every kWh.
• Over 14 and up to 28 kWh: 60% of the factor on each extra kWh.
• Over 28 and up to 50 kWh: 15% of the factor on each extra kWh.
• Over 50 kWh: nothing on the extra. Systems up to 100 kWh nominal are still eligible, but only the first 50 kWh usable earns certificates.

2. The factor falls faster

The STC factor used to step down once a year. It now steps down every six months, all the way to the end of 2030.

What that means in dollars

A certificate is worth whatever the market pays for it. The government clearing house buys them at a fixed $40 excluding GST, which works as a ceiling, and the open market usually trades a little below that. Using the $40 ceiling as an upper bound, for installs between May and December 2026:

Look at the jump from 28 kWh to 40 kWh. Twelve more kWh of battery, roughly 12 more certificates. Past 28 kWh the rebate barely moves, so the case for going that big has to come from your usage, not the discount.

Does the date you sign matter?

No. The Clean Energy Regulator is explicit that the installation date decides the rebate, not the contract date. If you sign in December 2026 and the battery goes in during January 2027, it is calculated at the January factor of 5.7, not 6.8. On a 14 kWh battery that is roughly 16 fewer certificates.

If you are close to a step down, ask your installer two questions before you sign: when can it be installed, and what happens to the price if it slips into the next period.

Who is eligible

In short, most Australian homes, businesses and community buildings installing a new battery. The main conditions are:

• The battery is between 5 kWh and 100 kWh nominal capacity.
• The battery and inverter are on the approved product lists.
• An on-grid system is capable of joining a virtual power plant (VPP). It has to be able to, you do not have to sign up to one.
• The install is done, or supervised on site, by an installer accredited by Solar Accreditation Australia.

You can add a battery to solar you already have. The existing solar does not need to be on the approved list, but it has to meet your state's electrical safety rules. If the battery will connect through your existing hybrid inverter, that inverter must be on the approved list, either now or when your solar was commissioned, or it has to be replaced.

Stacking state programs

Some states run their own battery or VPP programs on top of the federal rebate, and the rules differ by state and change often. Before you sign, whoever is quoting should check which ones you qualify for and show each one as a separate line on the quote. We do this for every Sunnn quote in NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, the ACT and Tasmania.

So what size should you get?

The new tiers make around 14 kWh usable the point where every kWh still earns the full rate. That lines up well with what a typical family actually uses between sunset and bedtime.

Going bigger can still be the right call if your evenings are heavy, you have an EV, or you want to trade the battery on a wholesale plan. It just needs to pay for itself from what it saves or earns, because the rebate is not doing much of the work past 28 kWh. We go through the sizing maths in How big a home battery do you need?

Want the number for your own home? The savings calculator takes about a minute, or check your eligibility and we will quote it with the certificates itemised.