How Much Do Solar & Batteries Cost?

How much do solar and batteries cost? (mid-tier)

For most Australian homeowners, a mid-tier system is the appropriate benchmark. The figures below are already net of the federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program rebate at the current STC clearing-house price, and reflect mid-tier equipment installed by accredited retailers in major cities.

System	Installed price (after rebate)	Cost per kW (solar)	Cost per kWh (battery)
6.6kW solar + 6kWh battery	$10,900 – $14,900	$760 – $1,400	$985
6.6kW solar + 10kWh battery	$14,780 – $18,780	$760 – $1,400	$980
10kW solar + 15kWh battery	$21,940 – $26,940	$800 – $1,300	$930

Across these configurations, solar accounts for 50-60% of the total installed cost and the battery accounts for 40-50%. Quotes materially above this range usually reflect premium brands or unusually complex installs. Quotes materially below it usually reflect either aggressive hardware pricing from newer market entrants or thinned-out installer margins, and the difference matters.

How much does solar cost on its own? (mid-tier)

Solar without a battery sits well below the combined-system numbers above. A 6.6kW solar-only install in 2026 typically lands between $4,000 and $8,000 after the federal rebate, depending on inverter brand and installation complexity. Adding a battery later is more expensive than adding it at the time of the original install, but it remains a defensible deferred decision while battery prices continue to fall.

System Size	Number of Panels	Average Price
3kW	7-10	$2,500 – $4,000
5kW	12-17	$3,500 – $7,000
6.6kW	16-20	$4,000 – $8,000
10kW	24-30	$7,000 – $12,000
13kW	31-40	$9,000 – $14,000

How much does a battery cost on its own? (mid-tier)

Adding a battery to an existing solar system is a separate cost question. The federal rebate applies the same way, 9.3 STCs per kWh of usable capacity, capped at the first 50kWh, but the per-kWh installed cost is typically slightly higher than buying a battery as part of a combined install, because the fixed labour and design overhead is spread across a smaller job.

The table below covers mid-tier battery-only installs in 2025-26, retrofitted to an existing solar system, after the federal rebate.

Battery size	Installed price (after rebate)	Cost per kWh
5 kWh	$5,500 – $7,500	$1,100 – $1,500
10 kWh	$9,500 – $13,500	$950 – $1,350
13.5 kWh	$12,000 – $15,500	$890 – $1,150
15 kWh	$13,500 – $17,000	$900 – $1,130
20 kWh	$17,500 – $22,000	$875 – $1,100

Two factors push the per-kWh cost up at smaller capacities. The first is the rebate cap structure the federal program incentivises batteries between 5 and 100kWh, with the discount applied to the first 50kWh, so a 5kWh battery captures the smallest rebate in dollar terms. The second is install economics: an installer’s day on site costs roughly the same whether they’re fitting a 5kWh unit or a 15kWh unit, so the labour-per-kWh falls as capacity rises.

A second decision sits underneath the price: AC-coupled or DC-coupled. Retrofitting a battery to an existing string-inverter solar system is almost always an AC-coupled install, which adds a battery inverter to the bill (typically $1,500-$3,000 of the totals above). DC-coupling is generally only available if the original solar inverter was a hybrid, in which case the retrofit is materially cheaper, often $1,000-$2,000 less for the same battery capacity.

Solar Nerds · Solar & Battery Price Estimator

What will your system cost?

Set the size you're considering. The estimate shows a range, because that's the honest answer — where a quote falls inside it is what tells you something.

Solar 6.6 kW

16–20 panels

Battery 10 kWh

Full rebate rate applies

Postcode optional

Sets your rebate zone and loading

What you're paying for

Federal rebates are applied at the point of sale, so a quote will normally show you the lower figure. Check the rebates estimator here →

Estimated price after rebates

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See what affects the pricing

How these numbers are worked out, and what they leave out

What's included. Mid-tier panels, inverter and battery installed by a CEC-accredited retailer, on a single-storey home with a switchboard that doesn't need work, in a capital city. Figures are net of the federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program rebate at the current STC clearing-house price, and net of the federal solar rebate on the panel side.

How the federal rebates are worked out. Both are certificate schemes, so they're calculated rather than estimated. The battery rebate is 6.8 STCs per kWh of usable capacity: the full rate on the first 14 kWh, 60% of it from 14 to 28 kWh, and 15% from 28 to 50 kWh. Batteries below 5 kWh don't qualify at all. The solar rebate is your system size in kW, multiplied by your postcode's zone rating, multiplied by the years remaining to the end of 2030 — five for a 2026 install, four for 2027, and so on. Certificate counts are rounded down to whole STCs, and both are valued at the current clearing-house price.

Both are applied at the point of sale. You assign the certificates to your installer and they discount the invoice, so the quote you're handed will normally show the "you pay" figure, not the price before rebates. That's why the headline here is the lower one.

State schemes are named but not subtracted. Most are interest-free loans rather than rebates — they change when you pay, not what the system costs. Others are means-tested, capped, or run in limited rounds that open and close. Treating any of those as a price reduction would understate what you'll actually be quoted, so this tool names what exists in your state and leaves the arithmetic to the rebate calculator.

What's not included. Switchboard upgrades, meter changes, three-phase work, multi-storey or difficult roof access, long cable runs, tin-to-tile transitions, ground mounts, tree removal, and any network-imposed export limit hardware. Any one of these can add several hundred to several thousand dollars.

The postcode loading. Postcode resolves to one of three broad bands — capital-city metro, regional, or remote — and applies a flat percentage. It is not a local price. Two postcodes in the same band return the same loading, and installer coverage varies far more than any band can capture. Postcode also sets your solar zone rating, simplified to each state's main population zone.

This is an estimate, not a quote. It's a reference range for reading real quotes critically — nothing more. Get three quotes from accredited retailers and compare the specified hardware, not just the total. The federal battery rebate steps down every six months from January 2027, and the solar rebate's deeming period shortens every January, so figures on this page will drift and are reviewed periodically.

What affects the price?

Four factors do most of the work in determining where any individual quote lands within the ranges above. System size and modularity affect economies of scale. Larger systems typically have a lower cost per kW. Installation complexity adds variable labour cost: distance from the switchboard, multi-storey access, three-phase work, and switchboard upgrades can each add hundreds to thousands of dollars to a quote. Brand tier sets the floor. Premium European inverters and panels command premiums of 20-40% over mainstream Chinese-made equivalents. And location adds a regional cost layer, with non-metro areas typically paying 5-15% more for the same install.

Government rebates and incentives

Two layers of public funding sit on top of every residential install. The federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program, delivered through Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs), provides 9.3 STCs per kWh of usable battery capacity in the 2025-26 financial year, worth approximately $372 per kWh at the current $40 clearing-house price, capped at the first 50kWh of a battery between 5 and 100kWh. The federal solar rebate runs in parallel for the panel side. State-level schemes, interest-free loans in Victoria and the ACT, and direct rebates in NSW sit on top of the federal layer and vary widely. The federal program steps down annually until 2030, so the dollar value of waiting falls each year.

Return on investment and savings

After rebates, payback periods for combined solar-and-battery systems typically range from 7-14 years, depending on system size, household consumption profile, and the prevailing feed-in tariff. A 10kWh battery that previously paid back in around 10.4 years now drops to roughly 8.5 years under the same consumption assumptions. Annual savings from a 10kWh battery sit between $642 and $2,742, depending on tariff structure and self-consumption rate.

There is an important caveat. Battery warranties typically run 10 years, and for some households, the payback period can approach or exceed that warranty mark. Sizing the battery to actual consumption, not to maximum capacity, remains the single biggest lever for keeping the maths in your favour.

Financing and payment options

Three main payment routes are common in residential solar. Paying upfront in cash avoids any interest, but ties up capital. Loans have the added interest cost but can ideally be structured as cash flow positive (Note: Green loans and personal loans are functionally similar products with different marketing, green loans sometimes carry lower interest rates pitched at sustainability investments, but the underlying credit product is largely the same). Lastly there are, Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) which shift system ownership to a third party who sells you the electricity at a fixed rate. This method is not as popular in Australia as it is in the United States.

Is it worth buying second-hand solar panels?

Used panels appear regularly on classifieds at a fraction of new prices, but the federal rebate only applies to new equipment, and most installers will decline to fit second-hand panels because the warranty exposure sits on them. The arithmetic rarely works out as favourably as the sticker price suggests.