Greens Pushing For Installation of $2.9B Renewable Energy Storage Program

The Guardian reported that the Greens are pushing for millions of Australian households to install renewable energy storage units, saying battery storage will change and revolutionise the energy system of the country. They have also announced that 1.2 homes and 30,000 businesses will be supported by a five-year package to encourage the use of solar storage across Australia. The Greens has estimated the program to cost $2.9B and could be funded by scrapping the concessions to fossil fuel-intensive industries and are promising to make the policy central to their post-elections and post-budget negotiations with the Labor and Coalition.

According Adam Bandt, The Green energy spokesman, they will oppose most of the budget, which resulted in inequality and has done nothing for clean energy. But if the government approached them of some less-offensive energy measures, they would talk to them about programs regarding solar energy such as the one being pushed. He also added that now is the time to jumpstart the Australian battery industry and encourage people to adapt energy storage and make the country a renewable energy leader.

The Green’s battery storage initiative was announced two days after the Turnbull government’s first budget is set to run for 5 years starting between 2016 and 2017. This is also part of their plan to shift Australia to be 90% renewables by the year 2030. For the household plan, the Parliamentary Budget Office has estimated the cost to be $2.8B over for years that will support 1.2M households with an average solar battery of 10 kWh. For the business sector, the Greens said that 30,000 units can be installed for $38M over the span of four years. The household and business programs could be funded by scrapping the accelerated asset depreciation of the oil, gas and aircraft industry.

The removal of the accelerated depreciation would save $2.75B over four years. The Greens also said that the solar battery storage program will only be necessary for 5 years since the battery costs are predicted to go down over the next decade.

Click here to read the full story on The Guardian