Solar panels offer the possibility of a home with super-low energy bills

Mujie/Alamy

Australia is in the midst of a home battery-installation frenzy, as households scramble to take advantage of a subsidy introduced by the federal government. My household is one of 300,000 that have already installed one of these subsidised batteries, and, much to my delight, I am now running my house and electric vehicle almost for free.

I have been obsessed with home batteries since I first wrote about them for New Scientist in 2018. They store energy captured from solar panels on your roof, so you can use it to power your home and, if you have one, an electric vehicle.…