THE Albanese and Cook Labor governments last week launched a new community battery in Stratton that will help cut energy bills, lower emissions, and improve local power reliability.

The installation will service up to 100 local households in Stratton, including renters, people who live in apartments and properties where solar can’t be installed.

Located at John Stone Park, the battery features artwork with a focus on the environment and was designed by WA First Nations artist and Noongar woman, Buffie Punch.

Through the federal government’s $200 million Community Batteries for Household Solar program, Western Power was awarded $2.5m to develop community batteries in Stratton, Coogee, Kinross, Bayswater, and Port Kennedy.

Activation of the Stratton battery adds to the further 16 community batteries already in place across the South West Interconnected System.

Eligible and participating households will be able to save up to $132 annually, via with a 4kWh off-peak offset under a retail subscription product being developed by Synergy for release later in the year.

The state and federal governments are also collaborating to ensure 100,000 households can take advantage of the WA Residential Battery Scheme, enabling them to store the renewable power they generate at home, receive ongoing cost-of-living relief and help secure the State’s clean energy future.

The WA scheme is a combination of the $337m WA Household Battery Rebate and the $2.3 billion federal government Cheaper Home Batteries program.

It offers rebates for batteries and no-interest loans to help with the cost of installing solar systems and batteries.

The Albanese Government has also invested $20.8m in Project Jupiter which aims to help Western Australian households to benefit from the scale and coordination provided by Virtual Power Plants (VPP)

Nationwide, the Community Batteries for Household Solar program will install 400 batteries to provide shared storage for households across Australia.

Federal Member for Bullwinkel Trish Cook said she was incredibly excited about renewable energy opportunities for local communities.

“This new community battery in Stratton is exactly that. I’m proud that the Albanese government has delivered this project - a fantastic local result for our community.”

Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy Josh Wilson said the Albanese government has got investment flowing, and we’re getting on with delivering cheaper, cleaner, more reliable and more accessible renewable energy to cut energy bills.

“Western Australians have clearly embraced our state’s world-leading access to solar energy with almost half of all homes equipped with solar panels that feed into one of the world’s largest stand-alone grids. Now we are working to increase our storage capacity to make sure we get the most out of all the free solar energy being harnessed across WA.

“Our investment in batteries, like the Stratton community battery, combined with our work on VPPs, means that Australia’s largest state is at the forefront of the clean energy transformation.”