The taxpayer would be slugged for the 30% so the sellers weren't going to complain.

But the government botched the plan, accidentally offering huge rebates on gigantic batteries, and setting off a wave of oversized installations that fed a new industry of "battery cowboys".

Later, realizing they were burning through money, the government announced they would slam on the brakes for May. Whereupon 78,000 people got the urge to install batteries in April. (See the graph below). The average battery installed in April ballooned to 36 kWh. After the government changed the rules in May, it promptly shrank to 23 kWh.

Given that the subsidies were worth up to $15,000 per customer on the largest systems (and even more to solar installers) both sides of this fake market had a reason to fudge the rules, stretch the dates and overlook the details.

In a normal free market the homeowner presumably would be kinda irate if the installer just stacked the batteries against the wall, didn't plug them in, and took a photo to claim the government handout. In the land of Socialist Theft, according to the tip offs sent in to the federal watchdog, all's fair in Love and Subsidies.

In one brazen case, the installer didn't even bother opening the garage, they just stacked the batteries right in front of the roller doors and pretended they were installed there. Who needs wires, eh?

In another report the installers allegedly stacked extra batteries next to a small system so they could pretend it was bigger,  claim more credits and get a larger subsidy. The installers took the booster batteries away afterwards.

Methinks there could also be other reasons why 76% of people didn't want to share their batteries and apply to join a Virtual Power Plant scheme. It could be awkward loaning a non-existent or suspiciously small battery to the retail giants to push and pull electricity out of. It might be hard to explain why your 50kW battery behaved just like a 20kW one?

In the most extreme example an installer is said to have returned two months later to try to take the batteries back that the customer had paid for. Perhaps the installer just mixed up their real clients from their fake ones?

The government created this boom, and the bust, and fed the corruption that went with it

This would not happen in a free market… and nor would most of the rorts above.

Some 530,000 batteries have been installed (at least in theory). Who really knows, since officials have only inspected 3,600 of them?