Tuesday, 15 August 2023

 Daniela DE MARTINO (Monbulk) (14:46): (269) My constituency question is for the Minister for Energy and Resources. It concerns the Andrews Labor government’s recent announcement to introduce 100 neighbourhood batteries across the state. Since the Solar Homes program was launched, this government has assisted more than 230,000 Victorian households and businesses to install solar panels. The enormous growth in rooftop solar has helped thousands of Victorians access cheap renewable energy while reducing emissions, and that is a terrific result, but even greater benefits can be made possible through neighbourhood batteries. They will store the cheap renewable solar energy when it is abundant during the day and feed it back into the grid when it is needed at night, keeping the lights on and the power bills down. The announcement of $42.2 million for this program in this year’s state budget was very well received across Monbulk, and my constituents are eager to learn more. So my question for the minister is: could she please outline the process for determining the location of neighbourhood batteries and the time frame in which this process will be undertaken? I will be delighted to share that information with my constituents.