Marketing the
battery rebate.

Most products don't change price on a government timetable. Batteries do. The federal discount, run through the Cheaper Home Batteries Program, is worked out from certificates called STCs, and the number of STCs per kWh steps down every January and July. So the biggest line in most battery ads is also the one most likely to be wrong in eight weeks.

That isn't an accident of the design. When the program was expanded in December 2025, the stated aim was to keep the discount at around 30% across battery sizes, in line with falling battery costs. In plain English: the discount is meant to shrink as batteries get cheaper. Buyers who hear 'the rebate's being cut' often assume they've missed out. Often they haven't. The price they pay may barely move if hardware prices keep falling.

For marketing, that gives you two jobs. Keep the number right, and explain the timing honestly enough that a buyer trusts you more than the installer shouting 'last chance'.

This is the published battery factor schedule from 1 May 2026, as listed in Solar Choice’s table, updated 23 October 2026 and the installer guidance from Formbay. The CER’s calculator page lists the same schedule and is the final word on any install date, so check it before a figure goes into an ad.

Certificates are shown for two common sizes, rounded down to whole certificates as in Formbay’s worked examples. A 10 kWh battery sits inside the full-rate first 14 kWh. A 20 kWh battery gets the full factor on 14 kWh and 60% of it on the next 6. Multiply by the STC price your retailer or agent pays to get dollars.

The date in the news is 1 January. Your deadline is earlier: the last day you can sign a job and still get it installed by 31 December. That depends on your stock, your crew calendar and the network approval wait, not on the calendar on the wall.

Door-knock and cold-call sales push it back further. For those, the ACCC says the buyer gets a 10 business day cooling-off, and you can’t supply services or take payment until it ends. Put in your own numbers.

The May 2026 step-down is the best guide to what December will look like. The CER's quarterly report says households accelerated combined solar and battery installations ahead of the 1 May changes, with more than 80% of April's small-scale solar installs going in with a battery. Average battery size then fell from 36 kWh in April to about 23 kWh in May and June.

Before that deadline, the regulator put retailers on notice. Its April release told them to be honest about their availability to install when quoting. It said a retailer that agrees to an install before the change but can't deliver 'may be liable to pay the difference'. It also reminded installers they can claim no more than two installations a day. And it warned that deceptive, misleading or unsafe behaviour would not be tolerated.

So expect the same pattern in November and December 2026: a rush of enquiries, crews that fill up, and buyers who were promised a date that slips. The marketing that wins after the deadline is the one that didn't overpromise before it.

Energy Matters published a useful guide in October 2026 on spotting a fake deadline. Its core point is simple: the rebate gets smaller on 1 January 2027, it doesn't end. 'The rebate ends on 1 January' is manufactured urgency. 'The rebate drops on 1 January' is true. Buyers are reading guides like that one, so your ads get judged against it.

The ACCC's test for any claim is whether it gives the overall impression of something that isn't so. A big dollar figure with no size, no date and no 'up to' gives the impression every battery gets that much, forever.

A line that ages well has four parts: the program's name, a worked example with a size, the install date it holds until, and what you'll do if the date moves. The planner above writes one for you, and the solar advertising rules page covers 'free' offers and payback claims.

NSW first, because it's where most of the confusion is. The state's incentive for installing a battery is suspended, and the old incentive can’t be combined with the federal program. Ads that still offer a 'NSW battery rebate' for the install itself are out of date.

Two NSW programs are live. The Peak Demand Reduction Scheme still pays an incentive when a battery is connected to a virtual power plant, offered through accredited providers and administered by IPART. The fact sheet says it can only be received once, and calls it an incentive, not a rebate. And since 17 June 2026, the Home Energy Saver program offers zero-interest loans of up to $15,000 over up to ten years for households with a combined taxable income up to $210,000. Discounts of up to $4,000 for lower-income households are due later in 2026. Lenders such as Brighte require vendors to hold NETCC accreditation, and to apply any federal or NSW incentive before the loan.

Outside NSW, check each state before you advertise there. Energy Matters reported that Victoria's interest-free battery loans have closed, while WA runs its own battery rebates that can be combined with the federal discount. If you sell across borders, run separate ads per state, so nobody in Newcastle sees a Perth offer.