Solar and battery systems in Queensland are supported by a federal discount that is applied directly by your installer. There is no application to lodge, no income test, and no check on what your house is worth. If your installer is Clean Energy Council accredited — and ours are — the discount is already built into the quote you are given.
How much is it worth right now
Since 1 May 2026, eligible batteries earn 6.8 Small-scale Technology Certificates per usable kilowatt-hour, which works out to roughly A$252 to A$260 per kWh. On a 10 kWh battery that is about A$2,500 to A$2,600 off the installed price.
| Battery size | Indicative discount |
|---|---|
| 5 kWh | roughly A$1,300 |
| 10 kWh | roughly A$2,500 |
| 13.5 kWh | roughly A$3,400 |
| 14 kWh | roughly A$3,500 — the top of the full-rate band |
These are indicative figures. The exact certificate price moves over time, and the discount is calculated on the rate that applies at the installation completion date, not the day you sign the contract. A quote that locks the price for you is worth asking for.
The part most people miss: the discount is tiered by capacity
This is where a lot of quotes go wrong, and it is worth understanding before you compare them.
| Usable capacity | How it is counted |
|---|---|
| First 14 kWh | full rate |
| 14 to 28 kWh | counted at 60% of the rate |
| 28 to 50 kWh | counted at 15% of the rate |
| Above 50 kWh | no discount |
So a 20 kWh battery does not earn twice what a 10 kWh battery earns. It earns the full rate on the first 14 kWh and 60% of the rate on the remaining 6. The extra kilowatt-hours cost you closer to full price, they sit closer to empty, and they cycle more shallowly.
For most Queensland households, 10 to 14 kWh is the sweet spot — full rebate efficiency, and enough capacity to cover the evening peak without paying for storage the household will not use every day. Some of the premium options, the Tesla Powerwall 3 and the Sigenergy SigenStor, happen to fall naturally inside that band. It is a useful sanity check when a quote arrives with a much larger number on it.
The 1 January 2027 change
On 1 January 2027 the factor drops from 6.8 to 5.7 — about 16% less than today’s rate. On a 10 kWh battery that is roughly A$400 of discount that simply stops being available, with no change to the hardware and no change to the rules.
After that the factor steps down again every six months. The program is scheduled to run until 2030.
Two conditions that catch people out
- The battery must be installed with solar. A standalone battery does not qualify for the discount. If you already have solar, you can add storage on its own. If you do not, the two need to go in together.
- The installer must be CEC accredited. The certificate is only created for systems designed and installed by an accredited installer. This is not a quality badge added afterwards — it is the mechanism the discount runs through. Use an unaccredited installer and there is no discount at all, however good the price looked.
Ask any installer for their accreditation number and check it before you sign. It is a thirty-second check and it protects the largest discount you will get on the project.
What else you need to know
- No application, no income test, no property value test. The discount is applied by the accredited installer as a line item on your quote.
- Grid-connected batteries must be VPP-capable — technically able to participate in a virtual power plant. You are not required to actually join one, but the hardware has to support it.
- Minimum 5 kWh usable capacity, maximum 100 kWh, and one system per property.
- The battery and the solar must both be CEC-listed products to be eligible.
About the state program that is no longer running
You may see older material referring to a Queensland state battery rebate. That program closed in May 2024. There is no separate state battery discount available now — the federal program above is the one that applies. If a quote or an advertisement mentions a state rebate, check the date on it.
What this means in dollar terms for a typical home
Take a 6.6 kW solar system with a 10 kWh battery in Brisbane.
- Discount applied — about A$2,500 off the battery
- Generation — a system this size produces around 20 to 25 kWh on an average Brisbane day, among the highest yields in Australia
- Where the saving comes from — peak tariffs run 30 to 45 cents per kilowatt-hour between roughly 4pm and 9pm, and that is exactly the window the battery covers
- Payback — typically 7 to 10 years depending on your usage, your tariff and how well the system is sized
Send us a recent bill and your address and we will size it properly, with the discount itemised so you can see what you are paying and what the system is worth.
1300 712 020 | Brisbane, Gold Coast & Ipswich
CEC-accredited installers. The federal discount applied directly on your quote.