105.6 MWh in One Month: ASB Sets Australia's Battery Record

May 26, 2026

In April 2026, Australia plugged in more than 2 GWh of home and small-business battery storage in a single month. That is not a typo. That is roughly the equivalent of every household in a mid-sized capital city deciding, at the same time, that the grid could do one. According to the Clean Energy Regulator's STC data published on Solar Nerds, the country has never seen anything like it.


And sitting at the top of the leaderboard, by a margin that frankly looks rude, was Aussie Solar Batteries Group. 105.6 MWh installed in 30 days. More than Enpal, the European giant most of the industry quietly assumed was untouchable. As far as anyone can tell, it is the largest single-month residential battery install figure ever recorded. Anywhere. By anyone.


So how did a homegrown Aussie outfit out-install Europe in autumn?



Reason one: the rebate got worse, so everybody panicked at once


Back in December 2025, the government quietly redrew the federal battery rebate. The old version was generous and simple: install up to 50 kWh, get the full STC factor on every kilowatt-hour. The new version, which took effect 30 April 2026, is a tapered, three-tier model that gives you less the bigger you go.


Here is the new ladder:


  • 0 to 14 kWh: STC factor applied at 100%
  • 14 to 28 kWh: STC factor applied at 60%
  • 28 to 50 kWh: STC factor applied at 15%


Translation: if you wanted a serious battery, you had until 30 April to lock in the old rebate. After that, the maths got a lot less friendly. The country did what countries do when a deadline is announced with a rebate attached to it. It stampeded.


Installers worked weekends. Suppliers ran low. Sparkies were calling in favours from sparkies they hadn't spoken to in five years. It was, in the politest possible sense, a national hustle.



Reason two: petrol is expensive, so people bought EVs, so they wanted bigger batteries


The other factor is geopolitical, and it arrived uninvited. Conflict between the US and Iran has kept oil prices stubbornly elevated through 2026, and Australians have responded the way Australians respond to dear petrol: by buying electric cars in numbers nobody quite forecast.


The knock-on effect is simple. If you charge an EV at home overnight, a small battery starts to look like a tea cup at a swimming pool. Buyers who would have settled for 10 kWh two years ago are now asking for 20, 30, sometimes the full 50. Bigger batteries, bigger jobs, bigger month.



Why Aussie Solar Batteries actually won


A rising tide lifts all installers. But not by 105.6 MWh in one month.


The honest answer is the dull one. Strong brand recognition. An entirely Australian sales team who know the local market. Heavyweight supply backing from Fox. And an internal operations discipline that, when the country lost its mind in April, didn't lose its scheduling spreadsheet. While competitors were apologising for delays, ASB was just installing.


The result is a number that will sit in the Australian solar history books for a long time, and possibly the global ones too.



What happens next, and why you should keep reading


If you missed the 30 April 2026 window, you are not alone. Most of Australia missed it, which is exactly why April looked the way it did.


But here is the part worth paying attention to: the rebate is scheduled to drop again on 1 January 2027. The STC factor is forecast to fall from 6.8 to 5.7, which on a real-world quote translates to roughly a 20% price rise for the same battery. Same hardware. Same installer. Same warranty. Just more dollars on the invoice.


You have already missed one rebate cliff. The next one is on the calendar. Between now and 31 December 2026 is the cheapest the system you want will ever be.


Make of that what you will. We will be busy installing.

Why Your Solar Battery Needs a Fire Protection Device

July 30, 2026
Most people weigh up a solar battery on price and payback. Then they read the headlines about lithium batteries catching fire, and the decision changes. Suddenly it is not about savings. It is about the thing bolted to the wall, sometimes a metre from a bedroom. That fear is worth taking seriously. So let us be honest about the facts, because they are not what most people assume. Lithium fires are rising. But not the ones you think. Fire and Rescue NSW recorded 332 lithium-ion battery incidents in 2025, up from 165 in 2022. The Commissioner says they are happening to households almost daily. Here is the part the headlines skip. Those fires are overwhelmingly e-bikes, e-scooters, power tools and cheap no-name devices, usually charged with the wrong charger or physically damaged. Properly installed home solar batteries are a different category, and only a small fraction of that count. Why home batteries are different A quality home battery uses lithium iron phosphate, or LFP. It resists thermal runaway far better than the cheap cells in a $200 scooter. It has a management system watching it around the clock. And in Australia it must be installed by an accredited professional to the AS/NZS 5139 standard. That is why energy storage fires are rare. But rare is not never. Even home batteries have been recalled before, the LG RESU range was subject to a compulsory recall over fire risk. Faults happen. And when a lithium battery does ignite, it is not a normal fire. It can exceed 1000°C, releases toxic gas, resists water, and can reignite hours later. Fire and Rescue say you are around four times more likely to be injured by a battery fire than an ordinary one. Prevention lowers the odds. This handles the rest. Nearly every safety feature on a battery is built to stop a fire starting. Very few do anything once one has. Think of it as four layers: Stable LFP chemistry. A management system that disconnects at the first sign of trouble. Emergency isolation and a modular design that contains a single fault. Built-in fire suppression, the last line, that acts if a fire ever starts. Layers one to three are common. Layer four is where batteries separate. A fire protection device sits inside the unit and, if it detects a fire, releases a suppressant at the source in the first moments, before it becomes a house fire. It does not make a battery fireproof. Nothing honest can. It changes the outcome if a fault ever occurs. The battery we install The Sumray battery has all four layers, including internal fire suppression built in, and is rated for up to 27 years. As one of Australia's largest installers, with 16,000+ systems since 2017, Aussie Solar Batteries fits every one to the current safety standard. Because the safest battery is only as safe as the hands that install it. Worried about battery safety? Check if your home qualifies for a Sumray battery with built-in fire protection. $0 upfront, no obligation.
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