In an early pre-election pledge by ACT Labor, householders will be offered interest-free loans of between $2000 and $15,000 to fund rooftop solar panels, household battery storage and hot water heat pumps.
The program is expected to cost around $150 million and is intended to "create and protect hundreds of jobs for Canberra into the future".
"We believe Canberrans should have the opportunity to benefit from cheaper household energy bills and make their households more sustainable," Chief Minister Andrew Barr said.
"Our plan will mean more households can make the right investments in their home without having to cover the upfront costs."
Labor says an average ACT household could expect to save more than $10,000 over 10 years in energy costs when installing solar, battery storage and a heat pump.
It says a re-elected ACT Labor government would work to offer the first tranche of loans in the first quarter of 2021.
Details on how the scheme would operate, whether systems would be capped in size, what feed-in tariff would apply, and what body would administer the program are not disclosed.
In May last year, "next generation storage energy" grants were on offer to 5000 ACT householders in which rebates of up to $825 per kW were on offer to offset the cost of installing a household battery connected to a rooftop solar system.
However, this only cut household battery purchase and installation costs by around a third, leaving consumers still with a significant balance left to pay.
A typical household battery, without solar panels, costs between $8000 to $15,000 installed.
The latest-generation Tesla Powerwall 2, for instance, costs $11,700 plus installation.
It has a 5kW capacity, can be installed outside (but not in a sunny area), and has a 10-year warranty.
A week ago, the Victorian government announced a system in which interest-free loans would be offered to landlords to allow them to access up to two solar rebates per financial year.
In NSW, a recently announced trial program for 3000 eligible low-income householders in places like the South Coast puts a solar system of up to 3kW on the roof, is paid for the government, and sends the householders' electricity bills to the government.
Incentives to own rooftop solar have been crimped in recent years by declining feed-in tariffs, high charges for stand-alone household battery storage, and limits on the amount of power which can be exported back to the grid to help defray installation costs.
The Council of Australian Governments had been working on a nationally consistent framework for connecting and compensating small-scale renewable energy generators and ensuring a "fair and reasonable" feed-in tariff, although there has been no recent update to this activity.
Under the small generator "buyback" scheme which operates in the ACT and NSW, renewable energy generators operated by customers under a residential tariff are limited to a capacity of 10kW, and less than 30kW for business customers.
The government's own discussion paper on sustainable energy for 2020-25 outlined "significant barriers to the uptake of energy efficiency measures in low income households and rental properties due to the upfront costs of installations and the permissions required".
Research by the Institute for Sustainable Futures at Sydney's University of Technology found that the renewable energy sector could create 45,000 new jobs by 2035 as part of a potential "green recovery" from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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