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- The rebate drops again in 6 months. Your customers don't know yet.
The rebate drops again in 6 months. Your customers don't know yet.
The Cheaper Home Batteries rebate reduces again from January 1, 2027. 450,000 systems installed. The Strait of Hormuz is changing the energy independence pitch. Here's the full brief.
Daniel Hartley — Energy Analyst & Tech Lead at TheSolarAI
July 10, 2026
THE SOLAR AI
Quick one this week — but an important one.
There's a deadline six months away that most installers haven't started talking about yet. There's a milestone that reframes how you describe the market. And there's a global story that's quietly changing what Australian households want from solar.
UNDER 4 MINS - LET’S GO →
Feature Story
AGL JUST CUT SOLAR FEED-IN TARIFFS TO ZERO
The solar rebate reduces again on January 1, 2027. Six months away. Most of your customers don't know — and neither do most of your competitors.
The Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme continues to phase down annually, meaning the value of solar rebates will reduce again from 1 January 2027.
This is not a new policy. It's a scheduled reduction that happens every year as part of the SRES design. But every year, the installers who mention it first — who call their warm pipeline before the end-of-year rush , fill their January calendars while competitors are still posting on Facebook about it in November.
Six months is exactly the right time to start this conversation.
Not urgently. Not as a pressure tactic. As a service call.
"Hey — just a heads up. The solar rebate reduces again from January 1. Worth knowing if you're still considering going ahead before year end."
That's it. One sentence. A reason to call. A reason for them to act.
The pipeline you build in July closes in October, November and December. This is the week to start.
The Offer
📊 THE MILESTONE THAT CHANGES HOW YOU DESCRIBE THE MARKET
450,000 batteries. One in every 17 Australian homes. The Cheaper Home Batteries Program just passed its first anniversary.
Australia, with its 27 million people, now ranks fourth in energy storage installations, surpassing many nations with much larger populations.
Fourth in the world. In a country of 27 million people.
“One in 17 Australian homes now has a solar battery, as rebate installs pass 450,000 at one-year mark. The Cheaper Home Batteries scheme quietly celebrated its first anniversary — with a new set of very impressive numbers. After one full year delivering generous rebates on generously sized residential battery energy storage systems, the number of systems installed through Cheaper Home Batteries has officially passed the 450,000 mark and is making its way to half a million.“
The Spotlight
🎙️ FROM THE PODCAST THIS WEEK — THE THING I KEEP THINKING ABOUT
Pick my Brain Podcast
Met with Alan Jones a few weeks back for an in-depth interview - Here’s the scoop!
LeadTrackAI — the AI engine powering Solar AI — solves one specific problem for solar and energy businesses: a lead submits a form, and nobody calls them back for two or three days. By then, the customer has forgotten they ever asked. The money spent on ads is gone. The opportunity is gone. The sale never happens.
Alan understood all of that within the first few minutes. And then he turned the mirror around.
"Are you applying the same discipline inside your own business that you sell to customers?"
Not as a criticism. As a genuine question worth sitting with before your next sales call.
Listen to the full episode: https://lnkd.in/dEp-Mifm
The Essentials
⚡ WHAT ELSE CHANGED FROM JULY 1
⚡ THE GLOBAL STORY CHANGING THE LOCAL PITCH Gif by europeanspaceagency on Giphy The Strait of Hormuz disruption is quietly reshaping what Australian households want from solar. This is the sales angle most installers haven't picked up yet. Clare Savage, who heads the Australian Energy Regulator, said the addition of a large number of energy storage batteries, together with more solar and wind power, has reduced system volatility, even as the disruption in energy markets caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused severe economic dislocations elsewhere. "Batteries have been displacing more expensive gas and hydro in the evenings, and we've just seen flatter prices through the whole day. That's really translated to lower forward electricity contract prices," she told The Guardian. | 🤖 RECYCLING CONVERSATION  Gif by windsunskyent on Giphy Australia's solar success story is now entering a new phase. After more than a decade of rapid deployment, we are beginning to confront what comes next: what happens when panels reach the end of their life? pv magazine The first large wave of rooftop solar installed in 2010–2014 is now approaching the 15-year mark. Not all panels fail at 15 years — most will keep producing — but the question of what happens at end of life is coming up more in customer conversations. The confident answer: panels are recyclable, and the Australian Government has been working on a Product Stewardship framework for solar. The honest answer: the infrastructure for large-scale residential panel recycling is still developing, and customers should ask their installer about it. |
📰 🎁 ONE NUMBER WORTH KNOWING ABOUT YOUR OWN PIPELINE
Gif by spongebob on Giphy
SIX-month until the rebate drops. with 450 K batteries already installed - The market is giving you more reasons than ever to pick up the phone.
The only constraint — now as always — is whether your business can respond fast enough when the leads come in.
Most solar businesses running 60 leads a month are leaking between $40,000 and $120,000 every month. Not from bad leads. From the gap between when the enquiry arrives and when someone picks up.
Three minutes. Free. No email required to see your result.
Six months. One in 17 homes. The Strait of Hormuz. Three conversations worth having before your next competitor thinks of them.
Move fast.
— nEEL Solar AI | www.thesolarai.com
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