From 1st May 2026, the battery STC factor for home batteries dropped from 8.4 to 6.8 per kWh.
STCs (Small-scale Technology Certificates) are government certificates that translate into an upfront discount off the cost of your battery, usually applied by your installer at the point of sale. The lower the factor, the fewer certificates generated, the smaller the discount. For batteries above 14kWh, a new tiered structure cuts the support further - the government says the tiers are designed to maintain around 30% off the upfront cost across battery sizes.
For a typical 20-30kWh system - the new normal for most households - the impact is more significant. A 25kWh system sees its rebate fall from around $8,400 to roughly $5,600, and a 30kWh system from around $9,330 to roughly $5,850. Not nothing, but not what it was. So if you've been sitting on the fence, it's fair to feel a little deflated.
Worth noting for anyone looking at a larger system: the drop in rebate is proportionally bigger, but so is the return. For batteries above 14kWh, the ROI timeline often only extends by one to two years - and with energy prices where they are, a larger battery can be more viable now than ever.
But here's the thing. The rebate was never the real reason to get a battery. It was a nice bonus on top of a decision that already makes sense on its own, and the case for getting one right now is stronger than it's ever been.
The world just reminded us why energy prices are unpredictable
Cast your mind back to early 2022. Russia invaded Ukraine, and within months, wholesale gas and electricity prices across Australia surged. Anyone who had solar and a battery was largely insulated from that shock. Everyone else copped it.
Energy markets are watching closely, and fuel costs can feed through to electricity in ways that are hard to predict and difficult to fully hedge against as a household - unless you're generating and storing your own energy.
Here's something that doesn't get talked about enough: the more rooftop solar Australia installs, the more wholesale prices can swing within a single day. Prices can go negative in the middle of a sunny day, then spike by early evening when everyone gets home. As more home and commercial batteries come online, that dynamic will keep shifting - which is exactly why having your own stored energy puts you in a stronger position regardless of where the market heads.
A battery doesn't eliminate your exposure to the grid entirely. But it changes the equation. You're storing cheap renewables during the day and drawing from it when grid prices spike in the evening. That's not a theory. That's what happens every day for battery owners on Amber.
You can stop watching the clock at 6pm
There's something beyond the dollars that battery owners often talk about once they've had their system for a while. It's the feeling of not worrying as much.
When your retailer changes their pricing, you shrug. When a price spike rolls through at 6pm, you're running on your battery. You're not watching the market hoping it behaves. You've already bought the energy you need, when it was cheap.
That shift, from passive consumer to someone with stored energy on hand, is hard to put a number on. But it's real. And it becomes more valuable as the grid keeps evolving, not less.
What changes when your battery is on Amber
A battery on a standard energy plan saves you money by avoiding grid imports in the evening. That's useful, and it works. A battery on Amber with SmartShift does something different. It can earn you money.
SmartShift watches wholesale prices around the clock. When prices go negative during sunny periods (which happens more often than you'd think, as solar floods the grid), it charges your battery for free, or better. When prices spike, it exports your stored energy back to the grid at wholesale rates that can reach $20/kWh. Yes, dollars per kilowatt-hour. It buys low. It sells high. Automatically, without you doing a thing.
The difference from a traditional VPP matters here too. You're in control - if you want to be. Amber will automatically trade for you and pass through 100% of what your battery earns, without clipping the ticket. But if you'd rather manage things yourself, you can control your battery like a remote control. Either way, every dollar your battery makes is yours.
In May 2024, when a grid stress event hit NSW, Amber SmartShift customers collectively earned over $525,000 in a single week. A smaller rebate matters a lot less when your battery is actively working the market like that.
Want to see what it looks like for your home setup? Run the numbers on our ROI calculator.
So is it still worth it?
A reduction of $2,800 on a 25kWh system, or $3,500 on a 30kWh system, is real money. We're not going to pretend it's not.
But zoom out. A battery is a 10 to 15-year asset. What it earns and saves over that period dwarfs the upfront incentive, particularly when software is working it every day to squeeze out every dollar. And every year you wait, the rebate will only likely shrink further, not grow.
The rebate might be smaller, but Amber makes your battery work harder than ever. Figures in this piece are indicative - your actual rebate will vary based on your battery's usable capacity rating and the STC price at the time of installation.
See how much your battery could earn with Amber here.
