Kiama residents are leading the charge when it comes to clean energy adoption, with solar rooftop panel installation in the LGA higher than the national average.

Steve Heinecke is one of thousands of residents who invested in rooftop solar several years ago to lower his household electricity costs.

Now the Kiama resident has supercharged his energy-saving measures by installing a solar battery, allowing him to store the energy produced by his rooftop panels.

Last July, the federal government introduced the Cheaper Home Battery scheme, reducing the upfront installation cost of home solar batteries by up to 30 per cent.

The incentive cemented Heinecke’s decision to invest in the technology and the timing allowed him to take advantage of the peak summer sun, with Kiama-based business All Australian Energy installing the battery in December.

Heinecke is not alone in taking advantage of the solar subsidy. A recent report by the Clean Energy Council found 183,000 solar batteries were sold in the six months to December 31, 2025.

This figure is more than the previous four years combined.

“I decided to invest in the battery as I thought it was a good thing to do for the environment,” says Heinecke.

“But the cost reduction helped my decision to purchase a battery.

“While we had low power bills with two people in the household, the battery will allow us to start storing solar energy and over a 12-month period we should have enough so that we don’t get a power bill at all.”

He also likes the fact that the battery will provide back-up power during a blackout “and make us self sufficient”.

Figures from the Australian Photovoltaic Institute show more than 40 per cent of households in the Kiama LGA now have rooftop solar, higher than the national average.

Australia is a world leader in renewable technology, with more than 4.2 million rooftop solar systems installed across the nation.

Until recently only one in 40 households used batteries to store their solar production.

The Clean Energy Council report - which tracks national trends in renewable energy uptake from 2020 to 2025 - found the “high cost made solar batteries out of reach for many households”.

But the Cheaper Home Batteries Program “has reduced barriers to these high upfront costs,” says the report, with the number of battery installations more than doubling year-on-year to 454,753. Now one in 24 households has a solar battery.

With rooftop solar producing almost 15 per cent of the nation’s electricity - five years ago it produced just 7.2 per cent of electricity - Heinecke believes the long-term benefit of panel and battery installation outweighs the upfront cost.

Heinecke has urged consumers who want to save money and the environment to do their homework and look into how a solar battery could help households turn sunlight into savings.