A free home battery will be offered to each householder who rebuilds their home lost in this summer’s devastating bushfires, under an arrangement offered by the Marshall Government and local battery manufacturer sonnen.

“Installing a battery as part of the rebuild will help make bushfire victims new homes more sustainable, more resilient and allow them to access cheaper electricity,” said Minister for Energy Dan van Holst Pellekaan.

“People who lost their homes in the fires need a helping hand to re-establish themselves and a battery worth more than $10,000 will reduce their future electricity bills whilst adding value to their new home.

“Participants in the State Government’s Home Battery Scheme have cut their electricity bills significantly, sometimes to almost nothing, so this initiative represents an ongoing benefit to families rebuilding their lives after the trauma of losing their homes.

“Kangaroo Island and parts of the Adelaide Hills can have outages due to storms, so rebuilding with batteries will make households more energy resilient by improving reliability and affordability.”

Nathan Dunn CEO at sonnen Australia said the recent bushfires across the country have had a devastating impact for Australians.

“sonnen is and will continue to be invested in supporting the wider South Australian community rebuild,” said Mr Dunn.

“This initiative will help add significant value to those rebuilding their homes, alleviating pressures of energy costs and provide them with the control to manage their energy needs more independently.”

The Marshall Government will offer the 188 families who have lost their homes to bushfires across the state a free battery to incorporate into the rebuild.

The Marshall Government secured local manufacturing of batteries in South Australia by sonnen in late 2018 after negotiating a new agreement with the German company as part of the government’s plans to see 40,000 home batteries installed in South Australia.

The agreement allows the South Australian Government and sonnen to work together to promote local manufacturing of batteries in South Australia, delivering local jobs and slashing electricity costs for households installing the batteries and helping reduce peak power prices for everyone else

The State Government has a broad range of assistance available to all victims of the bushfires which can be found at: dhs.sa.gov.au/recovery