When the Federal Government announced a rebate cutting around 30% off the upfront cost of home batteries in 2025, the idea was relatively simple.

Australia already had one of the highest rates of rooftop solar in the world. But batteries remained too expensive for many households, meaning much of the cheap power generated on rooftops during the day couldn’t be stored for use at night.

The Cheaper Home Batteries Program was designed to change that.

It began on 1 July 2025 with an initial expectation that it would support one million battery installations by 2030.

Instead, demand took off.

By August 2026, around 500,000 batteries had already been installed under the scheme. The government has since doubled its expectation to more than two million batteries by 2030 and increased the program’s estimated funding from $2.3 billion to $7.2 billion.

The scale of the response has helped reshape Australia’s energy market. Batteries are allowing households to store cheap solar power and use it during evening peaks, reducing reliance on more expensive grid power. Independent energy experts have also pointed to the rapid growth of batteries as one reason gas generation is increasingly being displaced during those peak periods.

But the policy didn’t appear from nowhere and Groundswell's community of givers played an important role in powering it.

When the opportunity opened

Solar Citizens had been advocating for federal support for household batteries for several years.

Groundswell had first backed the organisation in 2021, supporting its work to grow a powerful constituency of solar households and campaign for faster clean-energy uptake.

Then, at the beginning of 2025, something shifted.

A federal election was approaching and household energy costs were firmly on the political agenda, so the opportunity for a national battery policy was becoming much more tangible.

Groundswell backed Solar Citizens again – this time with $50,000 directly supporting the campaign at the moment the opportunity was opening.

Solar Citizens worked with the major political parties, including through its federal budget submission, making the case for government support for household batteries.

At the same time, it mobilised the people behind that case.

14,754 people signed its petition. Supporters made 394 calls to MPs and sent 1,733 emails. Solar Citizens and its allies kept batteries in the public conversation and put a visible constituency of solar households behind the policy ask.

That combination matters because while good policy analysis can show governments what is possible, community organising shows them that people actually want it.

By the 2025 election campaign, the idea had moved firmly onto the national political agenda.
‍

A much bigger response than expected

The Federal Government ultimately made the decision to introduce the rebate, and Solar Citizens was one of many organisations, industry groups, experts and advocates pushing for it.

But the extraordinary uptake since then shows the scale of the demand that campaigners had identified.

The original goal of one million batteries by 2030 quickly proved conservative. By 2026, The Guardian reported installations were running at more than 1,000 a day and nearly 60% of household-scale battery capacity being installed outside China that financial year was expected to be in Australia.

A policy that had been presented as the next step in Australia’s rooftop solar story was rapidly becoming something much larger.

The impact is now reaching well beyond Australia. According to Solar Citizens CEO Heidi Lee Douglas, the success of the scheme has prompted 40 energy ministers around the world to seek advice from Chris Bowen on how they might replicate it in their own countries.

By May 2026, almost 60% of household-scale battery capacity being installed outside China was expected to be in Australia, turning what began as a domestic clean-energy policy into something other countries are now watching closely.

More voices behind the shift

Solar Citizens was not working alone. Other organisations backed by Groundswell have helped build support for practical clean-energy policies among very different parts of the community.

Parents for Climate has organised parents and carers around household energy, solar and electrification, connecting climate policy with bills, healthier homes and children’s futures.

Farmers for Climate Action has made the case from regional Australia, showing how clean energy can reduce operating costs, strengthen energy independence and create practical benefits for farms and rural communities.

Groundswell has backed both organisations to build their communities, strengthen advocacy and bring trusted voices into political and public debate.

These organisations weren’t all running the same campaign. They were helping make the clean-energy transition relevant to different people, through voices and issues they trusted.

Then you keep going

Winning the battery rebate wasn’t the end of Solar Citizens’ work. One of the limitations of Australia’s rooftop solar success is that its benefits remain uneven.

Around a third of Australians rent, and most cannot simply decide to install solar panels or a battery on the home they live in. Solar Citizens describes renters as one of the largest groups still locked out of the savings available through household clean energy.

So in 2026, Groundswell backed Solar Citizens again – this time to carry the momentum of the battery campaign into its Solar for Renters work, focused on making the clean-energy transition fairer for people who don’t own their homes.

Solar Citizens is now advocating for incentives for landlords to install solar and batteries, minimum energy-efficiency standards for rental properties, and other ways to extend the benefits of cheap clean energy beyond homeowners.

That progression – from building a constituency, to seizing a policy opportunity, to asking who is still missing out – is exactly why long-term relationships with strong organisations matter.
‍

The leverage of advocacy

This is one of the things we love about advocacy – the impact can travel a long way beyond the original grant.

Groundswell has backed organisations helping build the public support, relationships and political momentum behind this shift. Today, the Federal Government has committed an estimated $7.2 billion to the Cheaper Home Batteries Program.

No one organisation owns that outcome. But together, years of advocacy helped turn an idea into public policy at scale.

And that is exactly the kind of change we want our giving to help make possible.