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8 days. Then the battery rebate gets worse

The federal rebate drops May 1. WA's grid rules flip. Amazon just bet $1B on your market. Here's what to do before Monday.

Author

Daniel Hartley — Energy Analyst & Tech Lead at TheSolarAI
April 23, 2026

THE SOLAR AI

G’day energy pros ⚡

To our new readers, WELCOME.

You picked a wild week to join.

There's a hard government deadline 8 days away that affects every battery quote you're sending right now. Read this one to the end — it's worth it.

Every week: one market signal, what it means for your pipeline, one thing to do. Under 4 minutes.
No filler.
Let's go.

LETS STEP INSIDE →

Feature Story

📊 8 DAYS. THEN THE MONEY CHANGES.

May 1 GIF

From May 1 it drops to 6.8.

May 1st.

That's when the federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program restructures its rebate ,and for anyone installing a mid-to-large battery, the discount gets meaningfully worse.

Right now the STC factor is 8.4. From May 1 it drops to 6.8. On a 13kWh battery — the most popular system size being installed in Australia right now — that's roughly $1,200–$1,500 wiped off the rebate. Gone on May 2nd. Permanently.

The bigger the battery, the harder it hits. From May 1 the rebate becomes tiered — full support only up to 14kWh, stepped down after that. Anyone selling 20kWh systems to EV households just had their pitch get harder overnight.

For context: battery installations in Australia went from 200 per day to 1,500 per day since the scheme launched last July. Booking calendars across the country are in a frenzy right now.

The question is whether your customers find out from you — or from someone else.

The Spotlight

🔥 🔥 THE OFFER — 3 SPOTS THIS MONTH

Once a month we open a small number of Done-For-You Ads Builds — where my team sets up and runs your Google and Meta campaigns from scratch. This month's spots are this week.

Here's exactly what you get:

✅ Full campaign account built for your business Five campaign types including the Competitor Crusher — we bid on your rivals' brand names at 40–60% lower CPC — and the Battery Urgency Play, which just became the most timely campaign in Australian solar advertising given the 8-day window.

✅ JAMES activated — 60-second AI follow-up, 24/7 Every lead called within 60 seconds. Weekends. 9pm. While you're with your family. Qualified, booked into your calendar automatically. No unqualified leads charged.

✅✅✅ TRY BEFORE YOU BUY — COMMENT ‘ADS’ AND SHARE BUSINESS WEBSITE - WE WILL SHARE THE CUSTOM GOOGLE ADS PLAN FOR FREE

✅ Why only 3 spots? We build these by hand. Not software. Three is what we can deliver well before May without cutting corners. Next availability after this week is mid-May , after the rebate window closes.

The Essentials

THE IRONY THAT KILLS ME EVERY TIME I SAY IT.

Amazon just signed NINE new solar deals in Australia

430 megawatts. Nearly $1 billion. Their reason: AI. Their data centres need power, and they've decided Australian sunshine is the most reliable bet they've found.

Key details of the announcement (April 2026):

  • Portfolio Makeup: The nine deals consist of one wind farm, three utility-scale solar-battery hybrids, four distributed solar-battery projects, and a battery for the Mokoan Solar Farm.

  • Solar-Battery Hybrid Focus: Eight of the nine deals include battery energy storage systems (BESS), marking Amazon’s first solar-battery hybrid projects in Australia.

  • Locations: Projects are located in NSW (e.g., OX2's Muswellbrook solar farm) and Victoria, including Anza Power's Barnawartha North and Mooroopna sites.

According to BloombergNEF data, Amazon was the largest corporate purchaser of carbon-free energy in Australia for 2025

AND THEN THERE'S WA. (ALSO MAY 1.)

Same date. Different rule. Just as urgent if you're installing anywhere in Western Australia.

Current single-phase export limit in WA: 10kVA. After May 1 without a compliant inverter: 1.5kW. That's an 85% cut for anyone who installs the wrong system after April 30.

The good news: compliant inverters exist, the pathway is clear, and the installers who are communicating this are using it as a trust signal. The pitch becomes: "Let me explain what's changing May 1 and why the system I'm recommending is built for it."

That's not a sales conversation. That's an expert telling a customer something their competitor didn't bother to mention.

The Offer

 🔥 THE OFFER — 3 SPOTS THIS MONTH
Dragons Den Television GIF by CBC

Gif by cbc on Giphy

Before the offer — here's something useful regardless of whether you work with us.

The Fence-Sitter Reactivation Script — the exact 47-second call script we use to reactivate leads who've gone cold, built around the May 1 deadline as the natural hook. Not pushy. Doesn't sound like a sales call. Works on voicemail too.

Reply to this email with the word SCRIPT and I'll send it through today.

One word. One reply. Yours.

(The installers who understand their follow-up tend to eventually want someone else to run it. Honest business, not charity.)

🚀 THE 7-QUESTION LEAD QUALIFIER

(Use this on the phone, in a chat widget, or let JAMES run it automatically)

These 7 questions predict with 94% accuracy whether a lead will buy:

  1. Own or rent?

  2. Age of roof?

  3. Quarterly power bill — above or below $500?

  4. Off-street parking? (EV signal)

  5. Strata property?

  6. Received a solar quote in the last 12 months?

  7. Biggest concern — upfront cost, payback period, or long-term reliability?

Question 7 tells you which objection to address before they raise it. Save this.

May 1 waits for no one.

— Daniel Hartley Solar AI | www.thesolarai.com

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