Some major players have entered a partnership to make home energy upgrades more affordable.

AGL Energy Limited has teamed up with fintech lender Plenti and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) to offer discounted finance for residential solar batteries. 

The initiative, backed by the Federal Government’s $1 billion Household Energy Upgrades Fund (HEUF), is designed to help homeowners switch to cleaner energy by reducing the upfront costs of decarbonisation.

The partnership follows the successful $100 million first close of Virescent Ventures’ second climate technology investment fund (Fund II), which aims to deploy $200 million into climate tech. 

Investors in Fund II include Westpac and the CEFC, and comes after Virescent's first portfolio saw over $270 million invested across 34 Australian climate tech companies.

Through competitive finance rates provided by Plenti, the goal is to make home energy upgrades more accessible. Eligible customers can apply for loans at discounted rates, though the CEFC itself does not provide direct financing to individuals.

AGL also offers additional benefits for customers who join its Virtual Power Plant (VPP), a network that connects solar batteries across homes to provide energy back to the grid. 

AGL plans to grow its VPP capacity to 1.6 GW by 2027, supporting Australia's shift toward distributed energy resources. 

As Australia continues to adopt rooftop solar at a high rate, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) projects that by 2035, 63 GW of NEM system capacity will come from customer-owned energy.

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