The Victorian Greens have urged the Labor Government to reverse their decision to quietly axe the state\u2019s no-interest solar battery loan program, warning the move will lock out low-income households from accessing cheaper, renewable energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The $8,800 interest-free loan scheme, designed to help households install battery storage, will officially end on 30 June. But today, Solar Victoria confirmed it is no longer taking new applications – effectively shutting down the program early. The cut coincides with a funding reduction of nearly 12% to Solar Victoria in last week\u2019s State Budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new federal $4,500 battery rebate is a welcome step, but leaves many Victorians in the lurch: with good-quality battery systems still costing over $13,000, lower-income households lack viable options to transition to cheaper, renewable energy without a loan program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Greens say that there was no reason to cancel the largely cost-neutral loan scheme, which should coincide with the federal rebates and could be expanded to help renters, apartment dwellers, and social housing residents – groups who continue to face barriers to accessing cheaper, renewable energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While any cost-of-living relief for low-income households is welcome, Labor\u2019s $100 energy bill payment mainly benefits fossil fuel-powered energy companies and pales in comparison to the long-term savings and energy independence that solar batteries offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Victorian Greens spokesperson for coal transition, Dr Tim Read:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n “Labor\u2019s decision means people who would benefit most from cheaper, cleaner energy remain locked out by the cost of batteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis was a sensible, low-risk scheme that let people take control of their energy bills and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHelping more people electrify their homes is one of the most effective ways to reduce energy bills and reduce emissions, we should be scaling this up, not winding it down.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Victorian Greens have urged the Labor Government to reverse their decision to quietly axe the state\u2019s no-interest solar battery loan program, warning the move will lock out low-income households from accessing cheaper, renewable energy. The $8,800 interest-free loan scheme, designed to help households install battery storage, will officially end on 30 June. But today, … Continue reading “LABOR QUIETLY CUTS SOLAR BATTERY NO INTEREST LOAN SCHEME”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32910,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32909\/revisions\/32910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}