Smart Brisbane business owners have been installing solar systems for many years now, taking advantage of our 300 days of sunshine a year.
With energy costs on the rise and solid government rebates in place, there’s been an increased uptake of adding batteries to these systems. Solar batteries bring many benefits to a business, helping them store energy and further reduce expensive grid imports.
Let’s look at why the economics of solar batteries are making sense for Brisbane businesses.
Why Batteries are Surging in Popularity
Batteries store value that solar panels alone can’t
Solar panels generate electricity during the day, but many businesses use power into the evening or early in the morning. Without solar batteries, you’re importing grid power to cover these times.
A solar system with no batteries will export excess solar energy to the grid and be credited back at low feed-in rates. You’re looking at maybe 5 or 6 cents per kWh as your feed-in-tariff. You’re missing out on the value of what you generated.
A battery lets you capture that value. It stores your excess daytime solar so your business can use it when you need it. If you’re operating during peak demand times or higher grid price periods, this is a huge benefit.
Government rebates
The big catalyst right now is the Australian Government’s Cheaper Home Batteries Program:
- From 1 July 2025, eligible small businesses (as well as households and community organisations) can receive a 30% upfront discount on the installed cost of a qualifying solar battery system.
- Discounts are provided through the existing Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) and are realised at the time of purchase via installers.
- Most battery capacities suitable for small businesses (5 kWh up to 100 kWh usable capacity) can benefit from this discount.
This rebate essentially brings the upfront cost of a battery down by around a third.
What the rebate means for costs
Before rebates, installation of solar batteries could represent a huge material upfront cost, often into the tens of thousands of dollars.
With the federal rebate now active:
- eligible installations receive around 30% off the upfront cost, lowering the barrier to entry significantly.
- rebates apply at installation via installers, so you see the benefit immediately on your quote.
The exact rebate values vary by usable capacity and evolve over time as the program matures, but the structural effect is the same. Batteries are economically more accessible right now than they have ever been.
Batteries improve sustainability credentials
Beyond dollars and cents, batteries help businesses:
- reduce grid reliance and carbon emissions
- capture more of their own renewable generation
- demonstrate proactive energy transition leadership
If customers, suppliers or corporate partners value sustainability, this becomes part of your brand proposition.
Real-Life Commercial Battery Scenarios
Let’s take a look at two important business scenarios where a battery can bring tangible improvements.
Scenario A: Evening/night-heavy operations
If your business uses a lot of power after solar production ends, for example:
- hospitality or late trading retail
- manufacturing with night shifts
- refrigeration or HVAC in the evenings
Then a battery can shift solar generation into those higher-use periods, cutting grid imports and reducing bills. This shifts energy from low-value exports to high-value self-consumption.
Scenario B: Business continuity and resilience
Power outages stop your business operations cold in their tracks. When you have a battery paired with your solar, you have backup power in place to keep critical functions going. Your network infrastructure, lights and point-of-sale systems all stay on line. Operational risk is reduced.
This is critical in industries like healthcare where downtime can have extreme consequences. A system with a solar battery attached boosts business resilience.
In industries where downtime costs real money (hospitality, healthcare, retail), this resilience represents value on top of financial savings.
How to Decide if a Solar Battery is Worth it
If you’re still thinking about whether or not to get solar batteries, here’s a practical checklist to assess the value:
- Analyse your energy usage. Is there excessive consumption after solar power generation ends?
- Check your tariff structure. Time-of-use and demand charges increase battery value.
- Consider resilience needs. If outages cost money, batteries add operational value.
- Run a cost-benefit with rebates included. Use interval (half-hour) data rather than annual totals for accuracy.
- Engage an accredited installer early. Eligibility for rebates depends on installation compliance.
Contact Voltora Industries for Your Solar Battery Installation
Solar batteries aren’t a niche add-on anymore. They’ve become a staple of eco-conscious and financially smart businesses across Australia.
If you want to…
- deliver higher self-consumption of solar energy
- reduce expensive grid imports
- cut peak demand costs
- improve resilience
- support sustainability targets
… then get in touch with the Voltora Industries team today. We have expert solar electricians who can guide you to the perfect system, helping you save on energy bills while being more eco-friendly and resilient in the process.
Lets get started
