Actual uptake of home batteries: The key roles of capital and policy

What are the key factors that drive actual uptake of home battery storage? This paper uses linear probability and probit regressions with data from an Australian household survey of homes with solar panels to assess a range of economic, policy, social, and locational explanatory variables. We find that capital and policy are important determinants. Households with smaller solar systems are less likely to install batteries, an example of a physical capital effect. Households facing financial pressure, indicative of financial capital constraints, are also less likely to install home batteries. There is also evidence of a policy impact, as smaller solar feed-in tariffs motivate actual battery uptake. This paper is intended as an early contribution to the very sparse literature on actual home-battery uptake; we emphasize the importance of capital and policy analysis in future studies. There are also implications for policymakers including that higher solar feed-in tariffs may delay the battery revolution in some cases. •We study home battery uptake for a sample of Australian households with solar panels.•Lower solar feed-in tariffs promoted actual home battery uptake.•Large solar photovoltaic systems are associated with additional actual home battery uptake.•Households experiencing financial pressure were less likely to have home batteries.•There are different coefficients for explaining actual and intended home battery uptake.