20,000 x "up to" $5,000/$7,500 battery subsidies for Western Australians.

What we know about the battery rebate so far.
WA Premier Roger Cook announced Sunday 23/02/2025 that if Labor WA win the state election...

Western Power customers can claim "up to" a $5,000 rebate for a solar battery installed after July 1st 2025.
(Horizon Power's 35,000 regional households get up to $7,500)

Update 11/3/2025
Don't we all just love speculation...?
A rumour from a usually reliable source thinks that the rebate will be $500 per kWh of battery.
So 5kWh battery = $2,500 rebate, 8kWh a $4,000 rebate and 10kWh and higher battery, the full $5,000 rebate.
We shall have to wait and see, but if correctly guessed, then it seems quite sensible to me.
The big unknown remains 'what about people who already have batteries and want to expand?'

Low and Middle income households can apply for an interest-free loan of up to $10,000.
If you earn more than the loan threshold, you can still get the "up to" $5,000 rebate.

What we can guess is likely based on other state battery rebates.
It will be for home owners only, not renters.
"Low to Middle Income" probably means up to about $180,000 household income.
July 1st will likely be the day you can apply to get approval for the rebate.
Approvals are likely to take a minimum of 3 to 4 weeks, so first battery installations likely to start in August.
You may have to submit quotes via an online Government portal for approval.
The "up to" $5,000 rebate apparently depends on how large a battery you install.
Batteries and Installers and possibly retailers too, will likely need to be on some sort of 'approved' lists.

The bad way, and the good way for Labor to do this.
The bad way.
Announce the scheme in February with a start date of July 1st.
That means many people who have got upcoming installations may cancel, so that they can wait for the rebate.
Construct a scheme where people have to get approval first and those approvals can be submitted from July 1st.
This means the industry has no work for 6 months, and when the floodgates open from July 1st, we are overwhelmed.
Far more people than installers and battery stock. Prices go up inevitably...supply and demand.
Possibly as much as half the rebate is eaten up by higher battery/install prices.
Nobody wants that. We want smooth sailing and happy customers with the maximum rebate.

The good way.
Start the rebate scheme as soon as election victory for WA Labor is confirmed.
People can install AND PAY full price for batteries straight away but they can only start to claim rebates on July 1st.
That keeps the industry working and allows for a steady flow of battery stocks into WA.
It also means there is much less chance that battery/install prices will increase significantly leaving the rebate mostly whole.

Checks and balances to counter fraud and keep battery installations safe.
Governments are rightly very conscious that there are people ready and willing to game the system.
They certainly don't want:-
Dangerous installations done by unqualified people
Unapproved unsafe batteries being installed.
Rebate claims made for installations that never happened.
Rebates being claimed more than once.

There's an app for that !!
Fortunately all solar and battery installers in WA are already very strictly monitored.
In order for STCs (subsidy on new solar panels) to be approved the installer uses an app.
They have to take a selfie at the start, middle and end of each installation and upload them to the app.
Those selfies are geo-located and time stamped.
It's the single most successful tool deployed to stamp out installer fraud.
No more flying in cheap labour to do installations while the SAA accredited installer signs off the paperwork at home.
If the WA Government requires these same 'selfies' to be uploaded with all rebate applications, that's going to work.

On the rebate claim the home owner (I assume renters won't be eligible) must provide:-
Three pictures with Geo location and time stamp of the SAA accredited installer at the start, middle and end of the installation.
Government should also record the SAA accreditation number of the installer, and the date and time of each install.
If people have submitted more than 3 rebate claims on any one day for that installer then ...Fraud alert.

Beyond that most important 'check' the rest are pretty simple.
There is already an application to Western Power to install a CEC approved battery.
Rebate claim needs that Western Power approval.
That gets rid of people trying to install dangerous cheap unapproved batteries.

The invoice from retailer along with dated proof of payment.
NMI number for the installation address plus Synergy account number.
Rebate claimant name and address must match the NMI and Account name.

If the Government wants to really play it safe then they can restrict the battery retailers too.
NETCC approved retailers have had their agreements, web sites, advertising thoroughly inspected.
We went through the process ourselves last year and now pay an annual fee to NETCC.
To be fair, we wouldn't have put ourselves through it were it not a condition for some low interest bank loans.
Customers needed us to be NETCC approved before they could get a cheap loan from their bank.
So we did it, more as a service to our customers than any great feeling that we needed to raise our game.

There are hundreds of solar companies that have done the same and got NETCC approval, and hundreds more that haven't.
Are all the ones who haven't done it dodgy? Of course not.
Are some? yes, but are all NETCC approved retailers totally honest and honourable? no.

Summary of rebate checks and balances.
Retailer invoice with proof of payment and dates
Western Power approval documentation for the battery installation.
SAA accreditation number of the installer.
Start, middle and end 'selfies' of installer on site with Geo/Time stamps for pictures.
NMI and Synergy Account numbers to match Rebate claim.

That's pretty much fraud proof now.
Proof of accredited installer actually doing the installation of a Western Power pre-approved battery.
That's the really big proof to stop dodgy installer fraud and make things safe.
Invoice and proof of payment at the correct address for the correct person.
That's going to make things very hard for dodgy claimants.

Make sure people who already HAVE batteries can add more and claim the rebate.
Most solar batteries (but not all) are modular.
Each battery module is relatively small, perhaps 3-8kWh but one can be stacked on top of another.
Adding an extra battery to an existing stack is pretty quick and simple installation work (usually).
The more batteries people can have the greater the benefit to them and the grid.
In the short term it also means that someone can install a small battery right away paying full price.
Then they can, when the scheme starts, buy more battery modules and claim the rebate for those extras.
Again, that keeps the industry working !

There's another $50 million to start building batteries in WA
Again, before throwing that money away, how about asking the industry first?
Were you hoping Premier Cook, that homeowners could install WA made batteries?
Did you know that virtually all the top solar inverter brands use their own batteries?
You can't just plug any battery, WA made or not, into a modern on grid residential inverter.
No point spending $50 million to build WA batteries that people can't install is there?
The reality is that to have WA made batteries you would also need WA made inverters to work with them.


Solar4Ever have been selling and installing solar in Perth, WA since 2011.

(08) 9467 9655

or email

This review was written by Andrew MacKeith, Solar4Ever service manager since 2011.