Doorstop, Bedfordale, WA

TRISH COOK, Member for Bullwinkel: Good morning, everybody. Thanks for being here in this early morning in beautiful Bedfordale at Dave and Ellen's place. I'm here this morning with Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Josh Wilson, and Bedfordale State MP, Hugh Jones MLA. And it's great to be here, and we're celebrating the fact that Bedfordale 6112 is the number one suburb in WA who has taken up the Albanese Labor Government's Cheaper Home Batteries Program. 

It's been a great success for those families that can do it, to reduce their electricity costs, but also have energy with their batteries when they need it, when everyone gets home from school and home from work, and the computers go on, and the heating goes on, and the cooking begins. So, it's been great for this family of eight here, and I'd like to invite Josh Wilson to say a few words as well. Thanks, Josh.

JOSH WILSON: Thanks, Trish. Good morning, everyone. It's great to be here in Bedfordale. It's the leading battery postcode in Western Australia, and we've marked a special milestone in crossing the 50,000 deployed batteries in Western Australia threshold in just a little bit more than 12 months since the Albanese Government delivered the Cheaper Home Batteries Program, and we are kicking off a home battery and small and medium enterprise battery revolution Australia-wide because it's the path to a clean energy transition. It's the path to a cleaner and cheaper energy system for all Australians. 

We're getting close to the 500,000 mark nationwide. We've deployed 13 gigawatt hours of battery storage, and it's so vital because Australia is already a world leader when it comes to solar and particularly distributed solar energy, we need to soak up that cheap and abundant solar energy in the middle of the day and redeploy it at the evening peak to benefit households like Dave and Ellen's, where they've seen their energy prices halve, and to put downward pressure on prices for the system as a whole. It's really important to hold on to the progress that the whole community has made, households and small and medium enterprises, backed in by the Albanese Labor Government and by the Cook Labor Government with their subsidy program here. It's the smart way that Australia achieves its destiny as a renewable energy powerhouse and a clean industry powerhouse as well. 

The remarkable progress that we've made has seen suburbs like this be the leading postcode in WA. Western Australia, of course, the leading jurisdiction within Australia as a whole, and Australia now leading the world on a per capita basis when it comes to the deployment of battery energy. We are literally third in the world in terms of sheer battery deployment numbers, behind only the USA and China but on a per capita basis, we are number one. That is what Australians want to see: cheaper and cleaner energy, lower prices for everybody, as we make a contribution to tackling dangerous climate change, and as we achieve our destiny to be a world leader when it comes to what will be the defining industrial and technological shift of the 21st century. 

It's fantastic to be here in a household that demonstrates all of those benefits in the leading postcode, in Bullwinkel in Trish Cook's electorate in Western Australia as we cross that 50,000 deployed batteries in WA milestone. As we get closer to the half a million deployed batteries nationwide as part of a home battery revolution that backs in Australia's already world-leading position when it comes to solar energy.

REPORTER: How much longer is the scheme running for?

WILSON: The Cheaper Home Batteries Program runs out to 2030 and has a target of achieving two million distributed batteries by that stage. I think one of the keys about this policy and the common sense at the heart of it, is similar with distributed solar, which the Rudd-Gillard Government began the process of supporting between 2007-2013, is that when we see a sensible targeted subsidy program, you start to see the scale in the technology, and then as a result of that scale, you see prices come down, and both solar and battery prices have come down dramatically as the technology improves. But obviously, when we've got all of that abundant solar, we need to be able to soak it up in the middle of the day and redeploy it in the evening peak. And the success of the Cheaper Home Batteries Program, and to get to nearly 13 gigawatt hours of deployed storage, it's already making that systemic change. So, it doesn't really matter if you're someone who's taken up a battery or not, you are getting those downward price pressure benefits.

REPORTER: Roughly, how much does it cost now then for somebody to get one of these batteries

WILSON: Well, it'll depend on the size of the battery. This is a pretty big system. They've got two 20-kilowatt batteries. It's a large family, so it will depend on whether you're going from no solar, to having solar and batteries in one hit, or whether you've already got existing solar. But it can be from a few $1,000 to $10,000 plus, depending on the size of the investment that you're making.

REPORTER: Can you just tell us a little bit about what kind of a house and home you have set up here?

DAVID GIBBS (HOMEOWNER): We've got two bathrooms. There are always two adults, but the children vary because we foster, so it goes from 5 to 10 kids. Ten’s about the most we've had. Since we got the batteries in, like some of our bills were up around $1,200-$1,400. We did have a previous solar system, but we changed that out when we had problems with that. We're using more power now because we've had to put two [hot water] heat pumps in one at each end of the house, so we're using more, but it's costing us less, which is a significant gain. We're as happy as.

REPORTER: Fantastic. And when did you get these installed?

DAVID GIBBS: About four months ago? March, I think. Yeah.

REPORTER: And so you've noticed a significant decrease in your power bill? 

DAVID GIBBS: Yeah, we have. There's a lot of things we've been changing because, and also because with the heat pumps, we don't need the gas now. We're only using the gas for cooking. So, there's another saving there where we were going through a gas bottle about every six weeks because of the amount of baths and because the gas was also heating the water. Yeah, so it's a win-win situation all round.

REPORTER: And can you tell me just a little bit about I guess how energy intensive it is to raise that many children, to look after that many children?

ELLEN GIBBS (HOMEOWNER): Pretty high. Like they all have their devices, and they like their hot baths, don't they? 

DAVID GIBBS: They enjoy the hot baths now. 

ELLEN GIBBS: Especially when they become teenagers, like a lot of ours are heading into teenagers. So, yeah, and then not sure if she's got it going now, there’s heaps and heaps of globes in the makeup mirror. The washing's endless. I think my machine goes non-stop all day. So, it never it never sleeps, the washing machine, does it.

REPORTER: When did you make the decision, or why did you want to, I guess, enter this scheme and get a discounted battery?

DAVID GIBBS: Well, I actually heard it through a friend of the boys at the soccer, and he was saying about the subsidies and that, and I just thought, well, it's a step up from what we had. What we had wasn't the best anyway, and it's a bit of massive step up because we ride through till about 10 o'clock at night on the batteries, and that's running the reverse cycle air conditioning. So it's good, you know and as we're going into summer, it's going to get better and better.

ELLEN GIBBS: Yeah, there was a big savings last bill, wasn't it? The electricity bill, and then without the gas now, that's another saving of about $400, $600.

DAVID GIBBS: And yeah, it's only going to get better as we go into summer.

REPORTER: Walk me through when you when you opened that first electricity bill and you saw it. What did it look like? How did you feel?

DAVID GIBBS: Yeah, pretty happy actually. Yeah, like I say, I got no complaints. I'm as happy as.

ELLEN GIBBS: Yeah, yeah, we're so we're glad we did it. Like it was a huge investment, you know. And come summertime, it's just going to be massive because we've got the pool, which also has a heater on it. So it's just going to be win-win in summer, you know. So yeah, we love it. We think it's great, and they look lovely. Like they don't look out of place, you know.

REPORTER: And being Bedfordale locals as well, and this being, you know, the highest postcode in Western Australia for taking up these batteries. Why do you think people in Bedfordale have been so keen to jump on board?

DAVID GIBBS: I can't really answer that. I think there should be more advertising about it because I only heard it through word of mouth. You know, so yeah. But I'm glad they do.

ELLEN GIBBS: Yeah, probably lots of word of mouth has gotten around, and I'd say the government incentives. There's a big push for people to do it.

REPORTER: Would you mind my asking how much the two batteries cost?

DAVID GIBBS: I think it was just under $16,000 all up, but it was 50% paid by the government, and so it was a $32,000 investment, but only cost us $16,000. So yeah, I was happy with that.