Labor is expected to flick the switch on a household battery incentive scheme in a dual cost-of-living and climate action pitch to voters.
Guardian Australia understands the government is preparing a large residential energy efficiency package as part of Anthony Albanese’s re-election platform.
The Coalition has signalled its own home battery plan is in the works, setting up competing policies to spark a household electrification revolution.
Clean energy advocates and crossbench MPs have been urging the federal government to do more to subsidise the upfront cost of solar panels, electric appliances and household batteries to slash power bills while cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Switching from gas to electric appliances would be a permanent solution to cut household bills, compared to the temporary relief of energy rebates.
Industry and government sources confirmed a wide range of policy options have been examined in the past three years, including tax rebates for appliances and a Hecs-style loan scheme advocated by Saul Griffith’s Rewiring Australia.
But sources said the most likely offering was an expansion of the small-scale renewable energy scheme (SRES) to include home batteries.
The SRES – which is due to end in 2030 – is limited to solar panels, heat pumps, water heaters, wind turbines and hydro systems.
More than 300,000 solar systems have been installed each year since 2020 under the scheme, saving households more than $1,500 annually, according to figures from the Clean Energy Regulator published in December.
Several state and territory governments already offer subsidies for home batteries, with WA Premier Roger Cook promising rebates of $5,000 and $7,500 for household batteries if his Labor government is re-elected on 8 March.
The Albanese government has already allocated $800m to upgrade more than 100,000 social housing properties with energy efficient appliances, and directed the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to fund more suburb-wide electrification trials.
The chief executive of the Smart Energy Council, John Grimes, said there was “never a better time for a national battery booster program”.
“The best way to address cost of living pressures is by helping families to get solar and batteries,” Grimes said.
The independent MP for Wentworth, Allegra Spender, last week declared household electrification would be a priority in a hung parliament as she announced a plan to upgrade more than 800,000 homes and rental properties through a combination of loans, tax write-offs and direct funding.
Fellow crossbencher Helen Haines is also promoting a loan scheme for household batteries and electric appliances.
The Coalition has for months signalled it is open to adding a battery scheme to its energy platform, which so far revolves around a plan to build nuclear reactors from 2035.
The shadow minister for climate change and energy, Ted O’Brien, indicated the policy was still on the agenda.
“The Coalition understands the importance of practical solutions like household batteries to improve energy resilience and affordability, and we’ll have more to say about this closer to the election,” O’Brien said.
The chief executive of Rewiring Australia, Francis Vierboom, said whichever party or politician put forward the most ambitious electrification policy would be “politically rewarded”.
Vierboom again made the case for a loan scheme for households, which he said would be “economically efficient, inexpensive to administer and could equitably target the biggest benefits to the households that deserve it most”.
“This is the election when consumers should win policies that accelerate the shift to solar, electrification and EVs, slashing hundreds of billions off bills over the next two decades,” he said.
The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, declined to comment.
