Energy

Solar Sharer Starts Today — What It Means for Your Battery Decision

Published 2 July 2026 · Osborn Energy Advisory

If you're weighing up solar or battery in South Australia, two things changed this week — and one of them starts today.

1. Free Electricity, 12pm–3pm, Starts Today

From 1 July 2026, South Australian households with a smart meter can access Solar Sharer plans — offers from electricity retailers that include three free hours of electricity every day between 12pm and 3pm.

This isn't a one-off promotion. It's a new requirement from the Australian Energy Regulator, applying to retailers with more than 1,000 customers in Default Market Offer regions — which includes South Australia. And despite the name, you don't need rooftop solar to sign up — it's about passing on the grid's abundant midday solar generation to any household, owner or renter.

The 24 kWh catch: the free window has a daily cap. Use more than 24 kWh between 12 and 3, and anything over that reverts to the standard rate for the rest of the window — no penalty, just back to normal pricing. For most households this won't matter; 24 kWh is close to a full day's typical usage. It only becomes relevant if you're running a battery, charging an EV, or trying to shift a lot of load into those three hours at once.

Who actually benefits:

Households with an EV to charge during the day
Anyone running a pool pump, hot water system, or aircon on a timer
Battery owners who can shift charging into the free window instead of paying for it

Who it doesn't help much: if you're out at work all day and nothing's running at home between 12 and 3, this offer does very little for you — worth checking before you assume it's a reason to act.

One more thing: this isn't automatic. It's an opt-in plan — you need to actively ask your retailer for it, and not every plan structures its rates outside the free window the same way. It pays to compare the whole plan, not just the headline.

2. The Battery Rebate Got More Complicated — and It's Shrinking

The federal battery rebate changed structure on 1 May 2026, and the changes affect anyone comparing quotes right now:

It used to be a flat discount per kWh. Now it's tiered — the discount rate drops the bigger your battery gets, in three bands: full rate up to 14kWh, roughly 60% of that rate from 14–28kWh, and around 15% of the rate beyond that. (The exact dollar figure moves with the certificate price, but the shape of the drop-off is fixed.)
It used to adjust once a year. Now it adjusts every six months, and it's built to keep shrinking as battery prices fall — expect the next step-down around the end of the year.

In practice, this means two things:

Bigger isn't automatically better anymore. Under the old rules, a bigger battery could sometimes mean a bigger discount. Under the new tiered system, that's no longer guaranteed — the right size for your actual usage matters more than it used to.
The rebate you'd get today is not the rebate you'll get in six or twelve months. If you're already gathering quotes, that's a real number worth locking in before it moves again.

What This Means If You're Comparing Quotes Right Now

Neither of these changes should push you into a rushed decision — but they do mean two quotes you got six months apart aren't really comparable anymore, and a system sized for "yesterday's rebate logic" might not be the right size for today's.

If you've already got quotes in hand, or you're trying to work out what size actually makes sense for your usage under the new settings, that's exactly what a second, independent look is for — no commission riding on the outcome, just a straight read on whether the numbers add up before you lock anything in.

Got quotes to compare, or not sure where to start?

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Jarrod Osborn has spent 9+ years in the South Australian solar and battery industry. Osborn Energy Advisory is independent — no installer commissions, no agenda.