CHRIS BOWEN
SHADOW MINISTER FOR CLIMATE AND ENERGY
MEMBER FOR MCMAHON

FIONA PHILLIPS
MEMBER FOR GILMORE

AN ALBANESE LABOR GOVERNMENT WILL FUND
A COMMUNITY BATTERY AT MALONEYS BEACH

An Albanese Labor Government will fund a community battery at Maloneys Beach as part of a plan to build 400 community batteries across the country.

Today, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, and Member for Gilmore, Fiona Phillips met with the Maloney’s Beach Resident’s Association to hear about their experiences during the devastating Black Summer bushfires.

In the thick of the fires, communities along the South Coast like Maloneys Beach, had power outages leaving them without essential appliances and communication lines to find out the latest news in a fast-changing and dangerous environment.

Community batteries are a way to not only build energy resilience when power goes down, but also help households cut their power bills and emissions.

Australia leads the world in solar - one in four houses have solar panels on their roofs - but only one in 60 has a battery.

And while over 1740 households in Maloney’s beach and surrounding suburbs have solar, less than 2% of those households have a battery.

The upfront cost of household batteries are just too high for most families, community batteries are a way to open the benefits of stored renewable energy to solar households, as well as renters and apartments dwellers who may not be able to install rooftop solar.

Only an Albanese Labor Government believes in climate action that increases energy resilience, creates jobs and cuts power bills.