Australia's many hours of sunlight, combined with new home battery storage technology, could seriously overhaul the way the country consumes energy, a new report claims.

The research, undertaken by independent climate change research non-profit, the Climate Council, suggests Australia will become one of the world's largest markets for solar energy storage.

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Home energy storage batteries allow those with solar panels to store the excess energy they generate, meaning they can buy power from the electrical grid when prices are lowest, and use their own energy at more expensive times. Such batteries could be a "game changer," Amanda McKenzie, Climate Council CEO, said in a statement

"Already 1.4 million Australian households power their homes with solar," McKenzie said. "Household batteries will mean that households can store the power they make and have the flexibility to use it later on."

The Tesla Powerwall.

The Climate Council predicted that at a cost of A$10,000 per unit with a payback of 10 years, half of all Australian households would adopt a home battery. It also said battery prices would continue to become more affordable — battery costs have already reduced by 14% on average each year between 2007 and 2014.

As battery prices fall and electricity stays pricey, "going off-grid" using solar panels combined with home battery storage could potentially be cheaper than staying on the grid by 2018, the Climate Council said.

"Australia leads the world in rooftop solar with more than twice the solar [energy system] penetration rates of the next country (Belgium) and more than three times the penetration of Germany, the U.S. and the UK," McKenzie said. "Going off-grid by installing battery storage could be cost-competitive with staying connected as early as 2018 as the price of battery storage falls."

A number of home battery manufacturers are already entering the Australian market. In September, Tesla announced its Powerwall home energy storage battery would launch in Australia in 2015. One of Australia's largest energy companies, AGL, said in May it would also be bringing out a battery storage device for residential and small business properties.