SPENCE DENNY: $200 million in fact, which comes in the form of subsidies and loans to try and assist people specifically in South Australia to have batteries installed to their solar panels. The Minister for Energy federally is Angus Taylor. Minister, good morning to you.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Good morning, Spence.

SPENCE DENNY: How will this work? I mean, do you actually have to have existing solar panels? It is a loan? What's the interest rate? How will it work?

ANGUS TAYLOR: There's two parts to this - a subsidy which is $100 million coming from the state government and a low interest loan of $100 million coming from the federal government. They join together and allow people to buy batteries if they've already got solar panels, or indeed buy both solar panels and batteries if they choose to. The great advantage of this is it turns intermittent generation - where you only get the power when the sun shines - to baseload reliable generation, which is what we need more of. What it can do is the battery can store the extra energy you get during a hot day or a bright day, stores that up and then you can use it at night. This is a great way of getting power bills down.

SPENCE DENNY: We know how batteries work. I just want to know the scheme works. So, what's the interest rate, what happens if you default, what happens if you die, what happens if you sell your house, how's it going to work?

ANGUS TAYLOR: That's all being set up by RateSetter and the details will be put out on the energy mining website in the coming weeks - it will be up and running in the next couple of weeks. Obviously the arrangements will be different depending on the size of your cells. The subsidy will pay roughly half of the costs - it is $500 a kilowatt hour of storage that is paid for by the subsidy, and the remainder can then be paid for with this low interest loan. What it effectively means is you're not having to pay any upfront cost to get your batteries and that the savings from the batteries will more than pay for any low interest costs that need to be covered, need to be serviced as it goes on. Of course, this carries over with the ownership of the house. So, if the house is sold then obviously the new owner carries it over with them.

SPENCE DENNY: Alright. This isn't going to help people who rent though, is it?

ANGUS TAYLOR: It's accessible to people who rent. Obviously it's only going to be of interest to people who are on a long-term lease. That's the nature of household sola, and it is one of the barriers, but this is actually available to people who rent. As I say, in practice it tends to be only people who are on long-term leases who are likely to want to take something like this on. What's so important in South Australia, Spence, is we need to stabilise our flow of electricity, and batteries allow us to do that. What's nice, what's great about this is everyone's playing their role and bringing the electricity prices down in the process, and that's why we're so focussed on this sort of initiative.

SPENCE DENNY: Will there be any criteria not to qualify for a low interest loan?

ANGUS TAYLOR: As I say, RateSetter has been the company that has been given the job of doing the sort of the- assessments. But as I say, the reason why-

SPENCE DENNY: No, no, I know, no I'm sorry, the reason I ask that, I mean, you know, if I'm earning $100-odd-thousand a year or whatever and in a pretty comfortable position, would I qualify for a low interest loan as well as anybody who might be on the basic wage?

ANGUS TAYLOR: I was about to say, because you get savings from having the batteries, then it's pretty easy to qualify because you're making savings and you can pay - more than pay - for any low interest loan out of the savings. That's the beauty of this. Remember there's a subsidy for about half the costs and the remainder is a low interest loan. So, the savings from whether it's the cells and or the batteries will more than pay for any interest costs, which means the barrier to get into these things is very, very low. That's what we want - we want to reduce the barriers to entry for people to be able to get this equipment on their houses, reduce their electricity bills in the process, and stabilise the grid in South Australia. All of which are things we need to achieve.

SPENCE DENNY: What's the interest rate?

ANGUS TAYLOR: RateSetter sets the interest rate. It will be a concessional rate. It will be below the rate that-

SPENCE DENNY: No, I know, that wasn't the question, no, no, no, no, what is the interest rate?

ANGUS TAYLOR: The interest rate will be set by RateSetter. We're not setting it. It's a low interest-

SPENCE DENNY: So, you don't know?

ANGUS TAYLOR: It would depend on the individual. I mean, I'm not going to tell people what interest rate they're going to get from a bank out there and I'm not going to say it here-

SPENCE DENNY: No, hang on, that's freely available.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Spence, it's a concessional rate and you'll be able to-

SPENCE DENNY: Yeah, but no, no, that's freely available. I can find out in the blink of an eye how much interest I'm going to pay on a loan.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, you'll tend to negotiate it and most people do - but you'll be able to get your interest rate when you go on to the website and speak to RateSetter. That will all be available on the energymining.sa.gov.au website. As I say, it will be a concessional rate, and it will be set a level where the savings will be more than enough to be able to pay for people's interest rates.

SPENCE DENNY: Can you get the subsidy without taking out the loan? So-

ANGUS TAYLOR: Yes, you can. Yes, absolutely you can. The subsidies are there available. This is a top up, a loan to pay for the remainder of the costs. So, the subsidy will pay - roughly speaking - half of the cost of the batteries. Then the remaining costs can be paid for with these low interest loans, which by the way, are very common in the market already for solar cells. What's new here is the low interest loans being made available for batteries as well as solar cells. That's the real change here, and we're providing the low interest finance to be able to make that possible - $100 million.

SPENCE DENNY: And when does this kick in? When-

ANGUS TAYLOR: This will kick in in the next couple of weeks, it will all go up on the energymining.sa.gov.au website. People will be able to access both the subsidy and the loan terms and agreements, and the access to the equipment and so on, all the guidance will be on that website.

SPENCE DENNY: There are many more issues here because we know people who've tried to install solar systems with batteries here in South Australia are waiting months and months and months, not only for the batteries but also for the correct meter to be able to operate their system.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Right.

SPENCE DENNY: I don't know how this is going to affect the actual ability of providers to install these things, but you would think it's going to make it harder.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Well, look, it's true that there's been a boom in household solar across Australia. We're seeing extraordinary rates of uptake, including in South Australia, and partly because we've got amongst the highest electricity prices in the world in South Australia, and what we're trying to do is reduce that, but this is being set up in a way where the metering and so on is all being standardised. It's crucial we get this right. The CEFC's involvement - the Clean Energy Finance Corporation's involvement allows us to actually get these things right. This is why we have this kind of program, so that we can make sure it's done right, that the installations are appropriate, that they're safe and that people are getting a fair deal, and getting access to low cost finance is part of that.

SPENCE DENNY: Angus Taylor, the Minister for Energy. Just quickly, have you registered your domain name?

ANGUS TAYLOR: Which domain name? The energymining.sa.gov.au?

SPENCE DENNY: No, no, your own personal one, because we know the PM's domain name, he didn't register it and a punk band from the US have put a song on it now called Scotty Doesn't Know. Have you registered yours, have you renewed it?

[LAUGHTER]

ANGUS TAYLOR: I actually have a website in my own domain name now, so it is registered, yes.

SPENCE DENNY: You might want to have a look.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Righto.

SPENCE DENNY: You might want to see if it's registered.

[LAUGHTER]

ANGUS TAYLOR: Thanks, Spence.

SPENCE DENNY: All the best to you.

ANGUS TAYLOR: Cheers.