Australia Installed More Than 276,000 Home Batteries in the First Half of 2026, Clean Energy Council Reports
The Clean Energy Council says Australian households installed 276,011 home batteries in the first half of 2026, 52% more than in the previous six months, in a period shaped by the federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program.
The headline numbers
The figures come from the Clean Energy Council's Rooftop Solar and Storage Report for January to June 2026, as reported on 29 September. The 276,011 batteries compare with 183,245 in the previous six months.
Rooftop solar also rose: about 180,878 systems and 1,894 MW of capacity, up 35% and 41% on the same half of 2025. The report describes this as the strongest six-month total since 2021 by installations and the highest on record by capacity. It also reports 153 batteries installed for every 100 rooftop solar systems.
The rebate effect
The Cheaper Home Batteries Program began on 1 July 2025. In its first twelve months it reached 457,439 batteries and 12.9 GWh of capacity, according to the report as summarised by RenewEconomy.
The report also says average battery size fell from about 35 kWh at the end of April to about 25 kWh in June, after rebate changes in May. We take that as the report's own reading, and we have not seen the underlying data.
Quality and what comes next
The report records rising compliance issues: 567 complaints, up from 317, and 88 compliance actions, up from 53. It also says most batteries currently focus on self-consumption, and recommends virtual power plants, flexible tariffs and flexibility markets so that they help the grid more.
Those are the same themes we cover for Europe. See our virtual power plants piece for how aggregated home batteries can support a grid.
A note on the sources
We read three secondary reports of the Clean Energy Council study, not the report itself, so the figures are as those outlets present them and may be revised. The seasonal comparison is with the previous six months, not the same period a year earlier. For the market in more detail, see our Australia country guide.
Sources
- ESS News: Australian home battery installs break more records
- RenewEconomy: Australian households installed record amount of rooftop solar and home batteries in first half of 2026
- Renewable Energy Magazine: CEC releases new rooftop solar and storage report
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