Australia will give you a 30% discount on that purchase, they have a fund of 2.3 Billion Australian dollars available for this purpose called the Cheaper Home Batteries program.
I thought I'd read that they planned to expand the scheme to non solar homes to fit in with the ethos of the new "benefits of solar for people without solar" messaging of the proposal under discussion here.
But I checked my supposed source and it was just someone suggesting that it would be consistent and useful if they did make that change.
My subsidised 48kWh battery is getting installed in two weeks - and I can't wait.
I have also upgraded to a 20kW inverter (I have ~10kW of panels on the roof) so I can import or export twice as fast and I will be switching to a provider that offers wholesale pricing. Getting a guaranteed 3 hours of free power a day for charging (even in winter) is just going to be the icing on the cake.
Based on back of the envelope calculations, the battery should be paid off in about 5-6 years during which time I will have paid zero for electricity (outside of a $25/month access charge).
"The future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed." - William Gibson
I took a job with Atlassian out there and got my citizenship.
Best 5 years of my life. I'm back in the US now temporarily, but there's zero doubt in my mind I will end up back in Aus. I've lived in 8 cities now(1), and Sydney was the highest quality of life I've had out of any of them. Great infrastructure, great work-life balance, great culture, and fantastic weather. Only downsides are the distance and the lack of ozone layer (do not fuck around with the sun in Australia - there's a reason why they have over 10x the global average of melanoma). Happy to answer any questions about it or the process for getting citizenship.
(1) Cities lived for comparison: San Diego, LA, Honolulu, San Jose, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Sydney
What about the real estate cost? I loved Sydney when I visited earlier this year, but real estate seems more expensive than my home city of NYC, and that's really saying something.
Ooo that's a fun one. Sydney is an easy "all around" winner, but it really depends what stage of life you're in and how important career is. If you're career-oriented, then the list is:
Seattle > San Francisco > San Diego > Sydney > San Jose > LA > Honolulu > Portland
For your average person though who's prioritizing overall quality of life, the list would be:
Sydney > San Diego > Portland > Honolulu > Seattle > San Francisco > San Jose > LA
Each city has something distinct to offer, but I will say that LA was among my least favorite cities to live in. It's just a worse version of San Diego.
Not sure if this is a joke or not, but this is much like saying “don’t all Americans carry guns?” Almost none do, it’s more common in rural areas, you will see it in an urban area once or twice in your life. Same for super deadly animals in Australia. But no one in Australia has died from a spider bite since anti venom was invented.
Charge the batteries in the free time and then use the stored power the rest of the day.