Solar Battery Rebate for Off-Grid & Hybrid Systems

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How the solar battery rebate works on off-grid & hybrid systems

Most people call it the battery rebate. It isn’t one. And the part that matters most to off-grid and hybrid owners — that the discount shrinks as the battery grows — is the part nobody puts in writing. So here it is.
what it actually is

It isn't a rebate. It's a certificate scheme.

Off-grid battery cabinet inside shed at Cooranbong tiny house property
  • Certificates

There's no cheque & no form to fill in.

Your battery earns small-scale technology certificates, and we apply their value as a discount on your quote before you pay anything. You don’t do the paperwork — we do.

The number of certificates depends on how much usable storage you’re installing and when it’s installed. What each certificate is worth depends on the market, which is why no honest installer can tell you a final figure before designing your system.

  • Two clocks, both ticking

The rate is set per kilowatt-hour

The rate is set per kilowatt-hour of usable capacity, and it steps down on a published schedule. It has already stepped down once this year.

The rate that applies to your system is set by the date it is installed — not the date you enquire, and not the date you sign. Installation takes four to six weeks from a signed quote, so if a step-down matters to you, that’s the lead time to work back from.

Certificates per kWh Schedule
Certificates per kWh Schedule
Installed between Certificates per kWh
January – April 2026 8.4
May – December 2026 6.8
January – June 2027 5.7
July – December 2027 5.2
January – June 2028 4.6
July – December 2028 4.1
January – June 2029 3.6
July – December 2029 3.1
January – June 2030 2.6
July – December 2030 2.1

The step from 6.8 to 5.7 on 1 January 2027 is a cut of roughly 16% in support per kilowatt-hour. That isn't a sales deadline we invented — it's legislated, published, and the same for every installer in the country.
Usable Capacity Rates
Rate Tier Breakdown
Usable capacity Rate applied
First 14 kWh Full rate
From 14 to 28 kWh 60% of the rate
From 28 to 50 kWh 15% of the rate
Above 50 kWh Nothing
  • The Discounts

The bigger the battery, the smaller the discount.

The full rate only applies to the first 14 kilowatt-hours of usable storage. After that it drops, twice.

Off-grid systems are big. Hybrid batteries mostly land between 14 and 28 kWh, which is the 60% band. A large off-grid bank runs well past 28.

So a suburban house bolting 10 kWh onto a grid-connected roof gets a better rate per kilowatt-hour than the system that actually keeps a rural property running. That’s how the scheme is built. It isn’t a mistake and it isn’t something your installer chose — but you should know it before you’re comparing quotes, not after.

Hybrid solar battery bank and three phase inverters, Morriset
  • How it works

What your discount actually depends on

Four things, all specific to you. The usable capacity of the battery you install. Which bands that capacity falls across. The date it’s installed. And what certificates are trading for when we prepare your quote. We work all four out and show you the figure on the quote itself, as a discount off the price. Not an estimate, not a range.
  • The big numbers

Why there's no dollar figure on this page.

Because certificates aren’t sold at a fixed government price. They trade, and the price moves. Any figure we published here would be wrong within months, and a number that’s wrong in your favour is worse than no number at all.

We calculate yours when we quote, using the price on the day. If you want to know roughly where you’d land before that, ring us and we’ll run it while you’re on the phone.

Hilldale off-grid solar system
off-grid batteries

The rules are different if you're off-grid

Off-grid batteries are eligible, but there’s a test that grid-connected buyers never encounter, and it turns on how far you are from the network.

If your property is more than 1 km from the grid, your battery doesn’t need to be capable of joining a virtual power plant.

If it’s less than 1 km from the grid, it does — unless you can provide written evidence that connecting to the grid would cost more than $30,000.

That second case catches a lot of rural properties that are close to a line but nowhere near a viable connection. If that’s you, the connection quote you’ve probably already got is the document that matters, and it’s worth keeping.

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    Rebate and certificate information on this page is general information only, and values change. See our disclaimer.  Rates and rules current as at 21 August 2026. Source: Clean Energy Regulator.