Power & Solar Group Blog

Feed-In Tariffs Are Falling: Why More Northern Beaches Homes Are Adding a Battery

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:22:42 GMT

If you installed solar on the Northern Beaches a few years ago expecting a steady credit for every kilowatt-hour you sent back to the grid, you've probably noticed that credit shrinking. It's not your imagination, and it's not just one retailer. It's a genuine shift in how solar economics work in NSW right now, and it's a big part of why this area recorded the highest number of home battery installations of anywhere in NSW between November 2024 and April 2025.

What's actually happened to feed-in tariffs

Daytime solar exports in NSW are now typically only worth around 3 to 6 cents per kilowatt-hour. That's a long way down from where feed-in tariffs sat a few years ago, and it reflects a simple supply and demand problem: so many homes are exporting solar in the middle of the day that the grid has plenty of it, so it isn't worth much at that time. Where the real value now sits is in time-varying and battery-linked export rates, some of which reach 10 to 20 cents per kilowatt-hour, but only during specific evening or peak windows.

In plain terms, the value of solar has shifted from how much you export to when you export it. A system that just pushes everything straight back to the grid at 9am is leaving money on the table. A system that stores that same energy and releases it during the evening peak is capturing several times the value from the exact same panels.

Why the Northern Beaches specifically has jumped on batteries

With roughly 23,000 rooftop solar systems already installed locally and solar targets around 75% met, a huge number of Northern Beaches homes are sitting on exactly the kind of system that benefits most from adding storage: an existing array that's currently exporting most of its midday generation for next to nothing. Add in the end of the temporary Energy Bill Relief Fund rebate and genuinely rising energy costs, and it's not surprising this area has led the state on battery uptake.

Northern Beaches Council has responded with its own push on community education, including webinars and a free Energy & Solar Expert Advisory Service to help residents work through battery sizing, costs, and how Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) fit into the picture. A VPP effectively lets your battery participate in the broader grid, sometimes earning extra credits for helping smooth out peak demand, on top of what it saves you directly.

What this means if you're deciding whether to add a battery

If your solar system was sized assuming decent daytime export credits, it's worth revisiting the numbers. For most homes here, a battery sized to your actual evening usage, not just the biggest one that'll fit, is what turns a declining feed-in tariff from a problem into a non-issue, because you're using your own stored energy instead of relying on the grid to pay you fairly for it.

We size every battery around how a household actually uses power in the evening, not a generic package, and we'll walk you through whether a VPP arrangement makes sense for your retailer and usage pattern before you commit to anything.

Thinking about adding a battery to your existing solar system? Get in touch with Power & Solar Group for a straightforward assessment of what size makes sense for your home.

The Cheaper Home Batteries Rebate Just Shrank Again: What It Means If You're Still Deciding

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:21:12 GMT

If you've been putting off a decision on a home battery because "the rebate will still be there next year," it's worth knowing that the rebate itself is shrinking on a schedule now, and it's already happened once in 2026. The Cheaper Home Batteries Program changed on 1 May 2026, and the changes are worth understanding properly before you get a quote.

What changed on 1 May 2026

Two things shifted. First, the rebate's underlying value (its Small-scale Technology Certificate, or STC, factor) now steps down every six months instead of once a year, and at a steeper rate than before. It dropped from 8.4 across January to April 2026, down to 6.8 from May onward. Second, the rebate is now tapered by battery size rather than applying flatly across the board: batteries up to 14 kWh still get the full STC factor, batteries from 14 to 28 kWh only get 60% of it, and anything from 28 to 50 kWh gets just 15%.

What that actually looks like in dollars

Using the current 6.8 factor, a typical 10 kWh battery's rebate has gone from around $3,192 down to roughly $2,584. A larger 25 kWh system has dropped from about $7,980 to around $5,323. At the top end, a 50 kWh system has fallen from roughly $15,960 to about $6,641, a much steeper cut, because of the size-based tapering hitting larger systems hardest.

Nothing else about eligibility changed. The program still covers batteries up to 100 kWh, still works whether you're adding a battery to an existing solar system or installing both together, and is still delivered as an upfront discount through the STC scheme rather than something you claim back later.

Why the government is winding it back

This isn't a sign the scheme is in trouble, it's the opposite. Since the program launched in July 2025, daily battery installations jumped from around 200 a day to over 1,500 a day nationally, and the average battery size being installed roughly doubled. The government is tapering the rebate as battery costs themselves keep falling, aiming to hold the effective discount at around 30% while the scheme works toward its target of 2 million battery installations by 2030. In other words, it's being managed down deliberately, on a schedule, not pulled suddenly.

What this means if you're still deciding

The practical takeaway is that every six months from here, the STC factor is expected to step down again, meaning the rebate on the exact same battery gets smaller the longer you wait. If you've been comparing quotes for a few months without pulling the trigger, it's worth getting a current quote rather than working off numbers from earlier in the year, since both the factor and the size-based tapering will have moved.

We'll always quote you against the current rebate settings, not last year's numbers, and help you weigh up battery size against where the tapering kicks in, since a slightly smaller system can sometimes come out ahead once the rebate tiers are factored in.

Want a current, accurate quote before the next step-down? Get in touch with Power & Solar Group and we'll run the numbers for your home.

Solar for Apartments on the Northern Beaches: How SoAR Covers Half the Cost for Strata Buildings

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:18:49 GMT

Solar has always been a harder proposition for the many unit blocks across Manly, Dee Why, Brookvale, Freshwater and the surrounding suburbs. A shared rooftop means a body corporate decision, a shared cost, and a system that has to work for a whole building rather than one household. The NSW Government's Solar for Apartment Residents (SoAR) program is aimed squarely at that problem, and it's worth knowing about if you're on a strata committee or simply live in a unit block.

What the SoAR program actually covers

SoAR covers 50% of the installation cost for solar systems on strata-managed buildings with shared rooftop space, up to a maximum of $150,000 per building. Applications are open now, with the current round closing on 4 December 2026. That's a meaningful subsidy for a category of building that's historically had very few solar incentives aimed at it specifically.

Why strata solar is worth the effort despite the extra process

Getting solar approved in a strata building means more steps than a standalone house: a proposal to the owners corporation, a vote, and usually some discussion about how the benefit gets shared, whether that's offsetting common property power (lifts, lighting, pumps) or a more complex arrangement for individual lots. It's genuinely more involved than a single-family home installation, and that complexity is a big part of why strata solar uptake has lagged behind standalone homes on the Northern Beaches, even in a region with strong solar adoption overall.

But the economics for a shared building can actually be very good, precisely because common property loads (lifts, corridor lighting, shared pumps, EV charging infrastructure ) run during the day, which lines up well with solar generation. A subsidy covering half the installation cost changes the payback calculation significantly for a body corporate weighing up the proposal.

What we help with

We work with strata committees through the practical side of this: sizing a system appropriately for the building's common property loads, putting together the numbers a committee needs to bring to a vote, and managing the SoAR application itself alongside the installation. It's a different process to a residential quote, and having someone who's done it before matters when you're trying to get an owners corporation to say yes.

With the current SoAR round closing 4 December 2026, buildings that want to take advantage of this round need to get moving on a proposal well before then, since between committee discussion, a vote, and the application itself, it isn't something that comes together in a week.

On a strata committee considering solar for your building? Get in touch with Power & Solar Group and we'll help you put together a proposal your owners corporation can actually vote on.

Source: Northern Beaches Council .

EV Tax Perks Are Shrinking: What the FBT Changes Mean for Northern Beaches Businesses and Novated Leases

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 01:17:15 GMT

If you're a Northern Beaches business owner considering an electric vehicle through a novated lease, or you're an employee weighing one up through salary packaging, the tax treatment behind that decision is changing, and the timeline matters more than it might seem right now.

What the current exemption actually is

Right now, eligible electric vehicles under the fuel-efficient luxury car tax threshold qualify for a full Fringe Benefits Tax exemption, which is a large part of what's made EV novated leases and salary packaging so attractive over the past few years. That full exemption stays in place, unchanged, through 31 March 2027.

What happens after that

From 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2029, the exemption narrows. EVs valued at $75,000 or less keep the full exemption, but EVs priced above $75,000 (and still below the luxury car tax threshold) only get a 25% FBT discount instead of a full exemption. The $75,000 cap is specifically aimed at keeping the incentive focused on more affordable models rather than premium vehicles.

From 1 April 2029 onward, the full exemption disappears altogether. Every eligible EV under the luxury car tax threshold moves to a flat 25% FBT discount, regardless of price.

One important protection: the government has confirmed that existing leases won't be affected by these changes. If you've locked in a novated lease under the current full exemption, that arrangement keeps its current tax treatment for its term.

What this means for the decision in front of you now

If a business or an individual is genuinely considering an EV through a novated lease or salary packaging arrangement, there's a real, dated window (through March 2027) where the current full exemption still applies to a new lease. After that, the maths on higher-value EVs in particular gets noticeably less favourable, and by 2029 the full exemption is gone for everyone.

This isn't a reason to rush a decision that doesn't otherwise make sense for your business, but if an EV was already on the table, the current settings are the most generous they're going to be.

Where charging and solar fit in

Whether it's one vehicle or a small fleet, the value of an EV goes up considerably when it's charged with power you've already generated rather than at retail electricity rates or a public charger. For a business with daytime solar generation and staff or fleet vehicles parked on site during the day, a properly sized workplace EV charger is often the single best use of that midday solar output, particularly with feed-in tariffs for exported solar as low as they currently are in NSW.

Weighing up an EV for your business or considering workplace charging ? Get in touch with Power & Solar Group and we'll help you work out whether a charger, paired with your existing solar, makes sense for your site.

Source: PwC Australia .