Rebates of $5,000 per household, or $7,500 for regional households, are being promised in one of Australia's most rooftop solar-heavy states.

Western Australian Labor has unveiled plans to slash the cost of home battery storage, with state government rebates of up to $5,000 per household, or $7,500 for households on the regional Horizon Power grid…

Eligible households would have up to 10 years to repay the no-interest loans of $10,000 or less…

Cook has also promised to invest $50 million of public money to a Battery Manufacturing Program of direct grants and low-interest loans to support the development of a home battery supply chain in the state.

  • Dimand
    2·
    3 days ago

    Whilst trace lithium is important for many biological functions, it seems unlikely to me that a particular tree would require significant quantities of lithium to thrive.

    Having a quick google it seems the issue is a particular forest that exists in a place that companies wished to prospect for lithium. I couldn’t find any evidence of a high lithium dependence for Jarrah trees.

    I would be very surprised if it’s not possible for us to mine lithium deposits and also have healthy forests. Though typically companies just care less about flattening acers to get to the money making rocks.

    • Funky_Beak@lemmy.sdf.org
      2·
      3 days ago

      Interesting. It seems to be scrubbed. They seem to be more worried about water supplies as a reason. But the reason that rehabilitation isn’t possible is that the two things these forrests need are bauxite and lithium.