Expert Insights on Solar, Batteries and Power Bills

If you're anything like us, there's nothing more satisfying than watching your battery bring down your energy bill. But unless you work at Amber, that's probably where your interest in energy pricing ends. Unfortunately that's exactly what your retailer is counting on. Every year around May, the Australian Energy Regulator quietly publishes a document called the Default Market Offer. It's dense, it's dry, and it sets the benchmark for what retailers can charge.

You did the smart thing. You got a battery, you're generating your own power and you're sending the excess back to the grid for a bit of cash. You're not just another household at the mercy of an energy retailer anymore. You're ahead of the game. Trouble is, a battery doesn't make you immune to the loyalty tax. You've done the hard part, your bill's already dropped and switching feels like one more job you'll get to later. Retailers know all that, and they're counting on it.

It's been a big 12 months at Amber. More households are getting solar, adding batteries and switching to EVs, and that means more people coming to Amber to make the most of it. We grew fast last year, faster than our support team could keep up with, and some of you waited too long to hear back from us. So we invested heavily in the team, tools and systems to fix that.

Amber is expanding its V2G program to 1,000 Australian homes - the largest residential V2G rollout this country has ever seen, backed by an additional $13.6 million in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

As part of our ARENA-funded trial, 50 V2G bidirectional chargers are being installed into Aussie homes across NSW and SA. Each month from here we'll share results from the fleet - a real-world look at how Amber customers are using their EVs to power their homes and send energy back to the grid. We're just getting started, and what's already happening tells a good story.

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.

The government has announced Solar Sharer, a new scheme giving NSW, SEQ and SA households three hours of free electricity every day around midday, starting 1 July 2026. Free power. Who's going to say no to that? If you're on Amber, though, it's worth understanding what Solar Sharer is before you start making plans. The headline doesn't always tell the whole story.

It's Chris here with your autumn update on what's happening with energy prices as well as some exciting operational updates from our team.