At first blush, Suzanne Bradshaw and Greg Ash could be your typical household power consumers.<\/p>\n
They live in a house they built six years ago on a battleaxe block in the inner Perth suburb of Mount Lawley.<\/p>\n
Like so many households, theirs is one that increasingly relies on electricity \u2014 from the gadgets under their roof to the solar panels on top of it.<\/p>\n
But look a little closer and a different picture emerges.<\/p>\n
In a workshop attached to the house are a number of kilns \u2014 electric furnaces used by Ash to make glass.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Suzanne Bradshaw and Greg Ash use solar power to help meet the energy needs of their glass furnaces. (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n
“I’ve been working on glass, this type of glass, for 23 years now,” the 72-year-old says.<\/p>\n
“So they [the kilns] can consume a fair bit of power.”<\/p>\n
Given their power needs, the couple have had to take steps to mitigate their exposure to the grid \u2014 and its associated costs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ash has worked with glass for two decades.\u00a0 (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n
They were early adopters of solar power, forking out more than $20,000 for panels when the technology was still relatively expensive.<\/p>\n
In 2019, when they moved into their new house, they installed an even bigger system and followed it up with a battery a couple of years later.<\/p>\n
And to round it out, they have signed up for a type of dynamic pricing known as a time-of-use tariff, enabling them to draw dirt cheap power off the grid between 9am and 3pm every day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bradshaw and Ash spent $20,000 on solar panels to help power their home. (ABC News: Glyn Jones)<\/p>\n
It costs them about nine cents for every kilowatt hour they buy from their retailer during those hours \u2014 but up to 45 cents per kilowatt hour at other times.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Their household battery helps Ash and Bradshaw to access power outside peak times. (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n
“The good thing about that is if it’s an overcast day and you’re not getting as much solar coming in, you can top up your battery during the middle of the day,” Bradshaw says.<\/p>\n
“That also means we’re not using electricity during the peak\u2026 that other consumers need.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u00a0Bradshaw and Ash are among the 400,000 small-scale solar customers in WA. (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n
The couple’s circumstances are increasingly common among Australian consumers.<\/p>\n
Australia has long led the world in its adoption of rooftop solar and Western Australia is no exception.<\/p>\n
There are more than four million small-scale solar installations across the country’s homes and businesses \u2014 equivalent to about one in three customers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Registrations for batteries under the Commonwealth’s small-scale green energy scheme have exceeded those for solar panels for the first time. (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n
It’s a similar figure in WA, where about 400,000 small-scale customers have solar.<\/p>\n
And now, courtesy of generous subsidies led by the Commonwealth, uptake of batteries is booming, too.<\/p>\n
For the first time, registrations for batteries under the Federal Government’s small-scale green energy scheme exceeded those for solar panels in July.<\/p>\n
Scratching the surface<\/p>\n
A new report commissioned by the office of Brad Pettitt, the leader of the WA Greens, is urging the Cook Government to go much further.<\/p>\n
The report, written by green power advocates Sustainable Energy Now, suggests WA has barely scratched the surface of its rooftop solar capacity.<\/p>\n
It says “only 13 per cent of the potential capacity” for rooftop solar has been realised in WA’s main grid, which spans the country’s south-western corner.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The report found WA has yet to realise its potential in the solar energy space. (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n
And it notes that of those customers who have solar, fewer than one in 20 have a battery as well.<\/p>\n
The lobby argues that better capitalising on WA’s capacity for small-scale solar power and batteries could dramatically cut the need for large-scale projects required as part of the transition away from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
“Fully utilising suitable rooftops” could slash the need for wind and solar farms while halving the requirement for new high-voltage power lines and saving billions, it argues.<\/p>\n
Crucially, it says small-scale solutions will also be much quicker than large-scale ones, a key advantage given the government’s plan to get out of coal power by 2029.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There’s been an uptick in the adoption of household batteries in WA. (August 2025) (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n
Pettitt says the state’s current plan, which relies on large-scale projects, is off track.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brad Pettitt says the state government should prioritise small-scale solar, instead of big projects. (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n
“The fastest and fairest way to decarbonise is actually utilising our rooftops,” Pettitt says.<\/p>\n
“There are savings in the billions around needing less transmission.<\/p>\n
“We’re saying ‘let’s get smart about this, using existing rooftops, we don’t need to clear vegetation, we don’t need to put in new transmission, we can do it now and we can do it quickly’.”<\/p>\n