Both major parties are promising to help New Zealanders pay for home solar panels, but a Timaru installer says their schemes fall short of what the job actually costs.

Terry Patterson installs solar panels in the Timaru area. He told RNZ's Morning Report that a typical home system costs between $22,000 and $27,000. That covers the panels, the inverter (which converts the power), the wiring, and sometimes an upgrade to your switchboard. Labour's new policy would give a $3,000 kickstart to low and middle-income households. National's fund offers low-interest loans instead. Patterson said neither goes far enough RNZ.

What Labour is offering

Labour announced this week a $160 million policy called SolarSaver. It has two parts: loans backed by the Crown that you repay through your power bill, and a $3,000 cash boost for households installing solar 1News. For renters, Labour would let them use that $3,000 toward small plug-in solar units that sit on a balcony or roof. Patterson said plug-in units only generate 600 to 1,000 watts — enough to run a fridge, not to meaningfully cut a household's power use RNZ.

What National is offering

National's scheme, the Home Energy Fund, works differently. It offers low-interest loans to cover solar panels, batteries, and insulation upgrades. You repay through your local council rates, not your power bill. Because it's a loan rather than a subsidy, you still pay the full installation cost — it's just spread over time National Party. National MP Simeon Brown described the fund this way on Instagram on 24 June, saying households would avoid paying the upfront cost in one go Instagram/Simeon Brown.

The battery question

Patterson thinks both policies miss something important: battery storage. Here's why it matters. When your solar panels generate power during the day, any extra power gets sold back to the grid. You get paid about 8 to 12 cents per kilowatt hour for that. But when you buy power from the grid at night, you pay 34 to 38 cents per kilowatt hour. Without a battery to store the daytime power for evening use, you miss out on that saving. A battery lets you use your own solar power when you need it most.

Patterson pointed to Australia as an example. Roughly 450,000 home batteries were installed there in the past 12 months. His own customers are still installing solar, but more slowly than before — even though some are paying power bills of over $1,000 a month.

Labour's policy now mentions a $2,000 battery component, and National's fund allows battery costs to be included. But Patterson said neither scheme emphasises batteries enough at the scale households actually need them.

How we got here

The government proposed changes to the Building Act in mid-2025 that mean you won't need building consent to install rooftop solar. That cuts one cost — the red tape and compliance — though it's not the big upfront bill Patterson is talking about RNZ.

The gap that remains

The real question Patterson raises is straightforward: a $3,000 to $4,000 subsidy doesn't bridge the gap to a $22,000 to $27,000 job. Whether Labour's power bill repayment approach or National's rates-based loans end up working better will probably depend on the detail — interest rates, how long you have to repay, and who's eligible — that neither party has fully spelt out yet. For people already paying four-figure power bills each month, the more pressing puzzle is whether either scheme actually makes solar affordable.