The Cheaper Home Batteries Program, which began on 1 July 2025, pays for part of a battery through small-scale technology certificates. The installer creates the STCs, the customer assigns them, and the installer or their trader turns them into cash that appears on the quote as a discount.
The product and site rules
The battery must be on the Clean Energy Council approved list, be capable of connecting to a virtual power plant (VPP), and have between 5 kWh and 100 kWh of usable capacity. Only the first 50 kWh of usable capacity earns certificates. It is one battery per property, and it can be paired with a new or existing solar system.
Read the usable capacity from the datasheet, not the marketing name. A battery sold as 13.5 kWh may carry a different usable figure once depth of discharge is applied, and that usable figure drives the STC count.
What you must hold and lodge
You need accredited installer status for battery work plus the electrical licence for your state. The claim then needs the signed STC assignment form, serial numbers, installation photos that meet the rules in force since 1 March 2026, and the commissioning and grid-connection paperwork. Our battery submission guide lists the evidence set, and the photo requirements page shows what a passable photo looks like.
How the money works
STC count equals usable kWh multiplied by the battery factor, with the tiered reduction for capacity beyond 14 kWh. The factor is 6.8 for 2026 installs and steps down to 5.7 on 1 January 2027 and 5.2 on 1 July 2027, so the discount you can offer shrinks on a known schedule. See how many STCs per kWh for the arithmetic.
You carry the cash-flow gap between install day and settlement. That is why installers pick a trader on speed: a claim sitting in a queue is your own money tied up. Our battery STC pillar covers the whole process and the how it works page shows the settlement steps.
What this means for installers
Treat the battery STC as a priced input, not a bonus. Quote it at a rate you can lock, check the factor for the install date, and keep evidence tidy from the first photo. If you are still comparing traders, read how to sell battery STCs and look at today’s rates.