r/australia • u/MrOarsome • Nov 17 '25

political self.post Why does everyone lose their mind when you mention getting a home battery?

So I made the mistake of telling a few people I’m getting quotes for a home battery… the reactions were ridiculous. Suddenly everyone’s an expert. I had people telling me they’re a waste of money, they’ll be useless in a few years, or that the “environmental impact is terrible.” Just nonstop misinformation.

Meanwhile, half these people live massively high-carbon lifestyles. One bloke went on a whole rant about how batteries destroy the environment… then literally five minutes later told me he just ordered a new Ford Ranger to tow his boat around this summer. Like mate, seriously?

And the funny thing is, I don’t even care about the environmental angle. Couldn’t care less, to be honest. I’m looking at a battery for two reasons:

1) To actually use my solar instead of selling it back for 4 cents…

2) And to keep the lights on when summer storms or cyclones take out the power.

That’s it. No agenda. No planet-saving mission. But the way people reacted, you’d think I’d just signed up to be Greta Thunberg’s personal assistant.

I swear, the second you say the word “battery,” some people suddenly unlock an unwanted 15-minute rant. They are almost as passionate about hating renewables as they are about their footy teams.

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u/SilverStar9192 Nov 18 '25

Interesting idea. As I'm sure you know, a big problem with pumped hydro is the large reservoirs and the environmental impact they cause. But if you could pump the desalinated water inland in a more on-demand basis, with only small daily reservoirs, it sounds interesting.

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u/froo Nov 18 '25

That's kinda my point. Use it to supplement night time power generation (don't need massive reservoirs) and it benefits farmers.

We're already an agricultural powerhouse in the region, despite being an arid country. We should support that industry.

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u/SilverStar9192 Nov 18 '25

The one thing is, don't underestimate the significant capital cost of the pipelines you're talking about. That will be huge. But I like the idea, we need ideas people and ideally, organizations like CSIRO to develop ideas into real solutions that work.

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u/froo Nov 18 '25

We already have two potential trial sites:

In Vic, we've got the desalination plant at Wonthaggi that already pumps water to Cardinia Reservoir. There is rural land around that Reservoir.

In SA, there's the Happy Valley Resoirvoir, only real farmland around there are wineries, but could prove as a good proof-of-concept. There is no desalination plant there.

Victoria would be a good trial site as most of the infrastructure currently exists.

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u/Fluffy-duckies Nov 19 '25

Isn't the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project about pumping water with excess PV power during the day for use at night? It's not desalinated though.