For years, rooftop solar was the move for Aussie households who wanted more control over their power bills. It's still popular, and installs are still climbing. But something else is now going onto Australian homes more often than panels are.
Batteries are being installed at a faster rate than rooftop solar.
And a lot of that growth is coming from households that already have solar. Solar gives you a way to generate your own power. A battery gives you a say in what happens to that power once it's generated: whether you use it later, and whether you sell it back to the grid. For households with panels already on the roof, adding a battery is the next step.
A few things are pushing it along. The federal government's Cheaper Home Batteries Program has made batteries more accessible, and rising fuel prices and renewed inflation pressure have people looking for more security in their energy supply.
The latest Clean Energy Council figures show how big the gap has become.
What the numbers say
The figures come from the Clean Energy Council's Rooftop Solar and Storage Report, which covers January to June 2026. In those six months, 276,011 home batteries were installed, compared with about 180,878 rooftop solar systems. That works out to 153 battery installs for every 100 rooftop solar installs.
- Batteries: 276,011 installed, which is 52 per cent higher than the previous six months (183,245).
- Rooftop solar: About 180,878 systems installed, up 35 per cent on the same period in 2025 and the strongest six-month total since 2021.
Solar isn't slowing down, either. Every state recorded its highest ever quarter for rooftop solar installations in Q2 2026, with 102,234 installs adding up to 1,079 MW of capacity. Batteries are just growing faster.
What's behind it
A big part of the battery surge is the federal government's Cheaper Home Batteries Program. According to The Cool Down's coverage of the report, installs under the program reached 457,439 systems and 12.9 gigawatt-hours of storage in its first year. The number of approved battery models eligible for the rebate rose from 1,259 to 3,406, more than doubling the choice on offer.
The Clean Energy Council also points to what's happening beyond the rebate. Conflict far from Australia's shores is pushing up fuel prices and renewing inflation pressure, and households are looking for more control over their energy. CEC Chief Executive Jackie Trad put it this way: "The sun cannot be blockaded in the Strait of Hormuz."
Households are on track to beat the forecasts
Since January 2019, Australians have installed 21,979 MW of rooftop solar. That's more than the combined capacity of the country's remaining coal-fired power stations.
Looking ahead, the CEC says that on current trends, rooftop solar and consumer battery storage capacity will exceed the Australian Energy Market Operator's 2029-30 forecasts in the 2026 Integrated System Plan. Solar is on track to beat the forecast by 13 per cent, and battery storage by 79 per cent.
The report also notes that the first vehicle-to-grid-capable chargers were approved in Australia in the first half of 2026. That opens a path for electric vehicles to work more like home batteries.
Buying the battery is step one
A battery on the wall is only half of the story, because what it earns depends on how it's run.
Most batteries come set up in self-consumption mode. Solar charges the battery during the day, and the house draws it down at night instead of buying from the grid. That will bring your bill down compared with having no battery at all. However, the battery doesn't know what rate you're on. It can't see wholesale prices dropping to nothing at midday or climbing at 6pm, so it follows the same routine whatever the market is doing.
Your plan matters here too. If you want to export stored energy on a traditional plan, a feed-in rate of around 4c per kilowatt hour gives you little reason to bother. Plenty of households have looked at that number and left their battery to self-consume.
What a battery can do on wholesale prices
Amber works differently. You pay the wholesale price of energy with no markup. Amber's only margin is a flat monthly subscription. That applies when you buy energy and when your battery sells it back.
Because you're on real-time wholesale prices, your battery has something to respond to. SmartShift, Amber's battery automation, can watch the market and make the calls for you. It charges your battery when energy is cheap or free, holds it, then sells the energy you're not using back to the grid when prices peak. Instead of a few cents per kilowatt hour for your exports, you can earn up to $19/kWh during those peak moments. And you keep every cent of what your battery earns.
You can set and forget with SmartShift, or take the controls yourself if you'd prefer that. Either way, the battery is working for you, not for a retailer's margin.
If you've joined the boom, put your battery to work
If you're one of the households that added a battery this year, see how that battery can be of value to you.
Get a quote with Amber and see what your battery could earn on wholesale prices.
