Yahoo Finance Labor offers $2K rebate for solar batteries
The Labor party has thrown its weight behind renewable energy, announcing a plan to subsidise solar power storage.
The party believes its plan to offer $2,000 rebates on solar power batteries could reduce electricity bills by 60 per cent.
Labor would first offer the rebate to 100,000 households and is estimated to come at a $215.9 million cost over the next four years. It’s part of Labor’s plan to have 1 million battery-powered homes by 2025.
The rebate will be means tested for those earning less than $180,000 a year.
“Battery packages can cost between $3,000 and north of $10,000, they’re getting cheaper everyday. Our incentive isn’t designed to pay for the whole production, people have got to put a bit of effort themselves, it’s just a bit of an incentive so that people can get on with the renewables revolution,” Opposition leader, Bill Shorten told Sunrise today.
Shorten is set to officially announce the scheme today as part of the party’s broader energy policy.
Shorten will also recommit to a 45 per cent emissions reduction target by 2030, the ABC reports and will also pledge to boost funding for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation by up to $10 billion.
He will express support for Malcolm Turnbull’s National Energy Guarantee but push for higher emissions reductions targets.
Energy policy has been treacherous territory for several Australian leaders in the last decade, with Julia Gillard’s carbon pricing scheme a major challenge and Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading scheme also a no-go.
More recently, former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s National Energy Guarantee triggering a stunning week in Canberra that left Australia with a new leader.
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