SunCrowd says its pioneering program, launched in Newcastle on Thursday, has attracted keen interest

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Australia’s first bulk-buy program for solar battery storage has launched, with more than 1,000 people in Newcastle expressing interest and more than 500 attending a sign-up event on Thursday night to buy home battery systems. From Friday, the program is being opened to people all around Australia.



The cost and complexity of battery storage, and the expectation that prices will come down , has so far discouraged purchases.

Until customer numbers rise it is hard for wholesalers, retailers and installers to bring their prices down, said Simon Sheikh, managing director of Future Super and a co-founder of the bulk-buy solar storage company SunCrowd.

“The problem is how to scale up the solar storage industry faster so as to reduce the costs for those companies,” he said. “If each company has got to spend $1,000 acquiring a customer, that’s $1,000 they’re going to put on top of the price.

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“Without a movement like SunCrowd, many people in the community will want to wait. What SunCrowd is about is pulling that purchasing decision forward by getting tomorrow’s prices today.”

Sheikh said the company worked by first taking expressions of interest from local communities, and then working with the entire supply chain to get the best prices. By organising all the purchases and installations in one go, it was able to save money on all aspects of logistics including sales, shipping and installation, he said.

The group started in Newcastle, taking expressions of interest for three weeks, and taking deposits from customers from Thursday night. Sheikh said the event had been planned for 100 people, but got more than 1,000 expressions of interest. They accepted 600 RSVPs for the initial event, and have since organised an overflow event for 400 people in Lake Macquarie.

Mike Collins (@mikecollo) Full house at the @JoinSunCrowd @ClimateNewy bulk buy #solar and storage launch in #Newcastle pic.twitter.com/EAz92rKVps

The initial focus will be on New South Wales, where a solar bonus scheme – which paid some solar owners generously for excess energy they fed back into the grid – is set to end on 31 December. With solar customers facing very low feed-in-tarrifs after that date, SunCrowd said it expected people in NSW to see battery storage as an effective way of using that energy.

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Chris Cooper, co-founder of SunCrowd, said the company was reducing complexity by selecting just two systems for customers, and providing a guide for how to evaluate their usefulness. It has launched an online tool allowing customers to estimate how each system was likely to affect their energy bill.

The offers made to customers in Newcastle were only for batteries that would fit with installed solar systems. In the future, the company plans to organise group buying for rooftop solar panels, energy retailers and electricity meters, and potentially organise power-trading between customers.

The initiative was supported by local campaigning group Climate Action Newcastle and solar owner campaigners SolarCitizens.